Sometimes people do things that make you wonder if they were really thinking…like…at all.
Andrew Brenner, a Republican state senator in Ohio, provided a pitch perfect example of such an incident this week.
The state senate in Ohio is debating a bill that would increase penalties for distracted driving. Brenner — who supports stricter penalties — called into a debate on that bill while driving. Zoom fails are pretty common these days, but this bit of hypocrisy was so easy to avoid.
Brenner seemed to make a hilariously poor attempt at covering his tracks during the Ohio Controlling Board meeting. After first appearing onscreen for the meeting clearly in his car, he added a background that seemed to be a home office. But, of course, his seat belt was still slung across his chest and the background faded in and out.
As Gizmodo pointed out, Brenner made matters worse by fumbling with the phone and clearly driving, making turns as the lawmakers debated. If you’re interested, full video of the meeting is here.
“I wasn’t distracted. I was paying attention to the driving and listening to it (the meeting,)” Brenner told the Columbus Dispatch. “I had two meetings that were back to back that were in separate locations. And I’ve actually been on other calls, numerous calls, while driving. Phone calls for the most part but on video calls, I’m not paying attention to the video. To me, it’s like a phone call.”
The proposed bill in Ohio would ban doing a bunch of things while driving: writing, sending, or viewing texts, watching videos, taking photos, livestreaming, and using apps. It would also allow police to pull drivers over for simply holding an electronic device while driving.
Brenner fiddled with his phone multiple times during the meeting in order to turn the virtual background on.