Democrats will do anything to CHEAT during an election - but we're not going to let them!"

And then there was this from Fox News personality Pete Hegseth: "Count on a variant about every October, every two years."

The idea here is clear: The emergence of Omicron is a political gambit by Democrats designed to aid them at the ballot box.

That is, in a word, dumb.

Start here: Variations of Covid-19 don't, um, follow the laws of politics.

The emergence of the Delta variant over the summer in the United States triggered another surge in cases -- and a subsequent dip in Biden's approval ratings.

Instead, on Monday, Biden was speaking to the country about his decision to ban travel from a handful of African countries that have seen the bulk of the Omicron cases.

"Sooner or later we're going to see cases of this new variant here in the United States," Biden said Monday.