Several Republican lawmakers, in an act of apparent protest, flouted mask rules on the House floor Tuesday during a voting session and then took a photo in front of the Capitol steps.
“Best $500 I ever spent,” Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., said after leaving the chamber, a reference to the fine House members face for breaking mask rules set by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The fine is $500 for a first offense and $2,500 for a second offense.
He was joined in protest by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Chip Roy of Texas, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Beth Van Duyne of Texas, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Mary Miller of Illinois.
In March and again in late April, Pelosi said that roughly one in four members of the House had not been vaccinated against Covid-19, despite having access to the vaccine since December. Many Republican lawmakers have protested since Pelosi put infection-control measures in place in the House, as well as after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Massie organized the protest, a source told NBC News.
“We’ve had enough. We are refusing to wear our masks on the floor during this vote in spite of Pelosi’s threat to take $500 from each of us. Her rule is not based on science. All you need to know is the mask rule has only ever applied to members when they can be seen on TV !” he tweeted Tuesday.
Greene posted a selfie with other members during the protest on the floor, despite a rarely enforced rule banning photography on the floor.
There’s no official public record of which House members, including those who participated in the mask protest, are vaccinated.
Some of the representatives’ offices have not returned a request for comment. A spokesperson for Greene told NBC News that the media does not have a right to that information. Another representative replied with the link to the Centers for Disease Control website.
An aide told NBC News that Norman has been vaccinated and added that Norman believes Pelosi’s rules are neither rooted in science nor common sense and are setting a bad example for the rest of the nation.
“Democrats have said ‘trust the science’ for over a year. Now, they refuse to recognize new CDC guidance. Why?,” a GOP staffer with knowledge of the protest told NBC News.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, on Sunday defended her agency’s decision to issue new and loosened guidelines on mask-wearing, changes that have sparked confusion among state and local officials, as well as businesses.
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Walensky stressed that “evolving science” drove the decision to update the government’s guidance to allow those fully vaccinated for Covid-19 to safely shed their masks in most circumstances, and she said that the agency wanted to get the information to Americans as quickly as possible.
“This was not permission to shed masks for everybody everywhere. This was really science-driven individual assessment of your risk,” Walensky said.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., was seen having an animated debate with Greene, Boebert and Massie on the House floor for at least 15 minutes on Tuesday afternoon.
“I was just telling my friends that 100 percent of the Democrats had been vaccinated, and if we had 100 percent of the members vaccinated we could all take our masks off — so we should be protesting them,” Raskin told reporters.
He said Massie argued that he previously had Covid-19 so he has the same immunity as someone with a vaccine. Then, Raskin said, “they got into it.”
“I said, ‘Hey, you guys are just like 21st century Freedom Riders. John Lewis would be so proud,’ ” Raskin told reporters. “The irony may have been lost on them. I don’t know.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
