Best $500 I ever spent': GOP lawmakers flout mask rules, risk fine on House floor
Category: News & Politics
Via: tessylo • 5 years ago • 64 commentsBy: Haley Talbot and Dartunorro Clark, NBC News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Best $500 I ever spent': GOP lawmakers flout mask rules, risk fine on House floor
"Best $500 I ever spent," Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., said after he left 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.
Later Tuesday, a Capitol official confirmed that first offense warnings for not following the mask rules would be issued to Boebert, Massie, Green, Roy, Good, Gohmert and Mary Miller.
The fine for a third offense, the official added, is $2,500. The fine for each offense after that is $2,500.
In March and again in late April, Pelosi said about 1 in 4 members of the House had not been vaccinated against Covid-19 , even though they have had access to the vaccines 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 riot.
Massie organized the protest, a source said.
Greene posted a selfie with other members during the protest on the floor, despite a rarely enforced rule that bans photography on the floor.
There's no official public record of which House members, including those who participated in the mask protest, have been vaccinated.
Some of the representatives' offices have not returned requests for comment. A spokesperson for Greene said the media do not have a right to that information. Another representative replied with the link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website.
An aide said Norman has been vaccinated. The aide said that Norman believes Pelosi's rules are neither rooted in science nor common sense and that they are setting a bad example for the rest of the nation.
A GOP staffer with knowledge of the protest said: "Democrats have said 'trust the science' for over a year. Now they refuse to recognize new CDC guidance. Why?"
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 who have been fully vaccinated to safely shed their masks in most circumstances, and she said 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," she 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 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 had already had Covid-19 so he has the same immunity as someone who has been vaccinated. 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."
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Nobody needs to wonder why America has suffered almost 600,000 deaths from the Coronavirus.
No one need to wonder why China has kept their true number of dead from Covid hidden.
Life must be wonderful under totalitarian rule.
Vas you there, Charlie? Well I was there. I live in a city-state of 32 million people, Chongqing, almost the total population of Canada. Chongqing had 692 cases of coronavirus, 6 of whom diied and the rest recovered. Over the past year only a few imported cases happened, but were dealt with. Everything is pretty well totally back to normal, schools are open, theatres are open, factories, stores and shops and restaurants are operating normally although I still have to wear a mask and heve my temperturre taken to step into my bank, and everyone has to wear a mask on the subway or a bus. Otherwise, masks outside are rare. How am I so sure? First of all because I'm here (and you are not), and secondly, because my best friend here is a front-line hospital doctor and I believe him when he tells me the figures are as accurate as anywhere in the world can be (because absolute accuracy is impossible everywhere). But keep demonizing China, because that's what is keeping the USA being able the bear that their response was a total fuck-up, and gives them justification for attacking and harrassing Asian Americans.
And yes, a few new cases (mostly imported) do come up in various areas in China on an almost daily basis, and they are announced on TV news and news media, and they are effectively dealt with - they are not hidden.
Morning buzz. Just reading where China has vaccinated 15 million people in a day due to outbreaks...that is staggering..was in the South China morning Post... sounds like the virus is on the move yet again..
Good morning to you too, Shona1. As I said above, there are some new cases almost every day in China, mostly imported and mostly near borders wirh other countries or sea ports, and although China comes down hard and is known to test a whole city and do proper tracing when it happens, at least it is effective. China is nowhere near vaccinating the majority of people here, so it's no surprise to me that they are vaccinating 15 million a day. Remember that China's population is around 4.5 times that of the USA and was it unusual if the USA were to vaccinate 3 million in a day?
I am not wondering because there is nothing to wonder about.
Well, where I work if you have been fully vaccinated you don't have to wear a mask if you don't want to. If you haven't been vaxxed, you have to wear a mask.
I do think Pelosi is going over the top with this mask rule. Just make the people who haven't been vaxxed wear the mask
I'm glad you brought Ms. Pelosi into this. Did she ever pay that fine for going around the metal detector in the Capitol building? I think not but cannot substantiate it. But here is where it started.
Pelosi is mentioned in the article.
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Off-topic. But perhaps now is a good time for you to post any available video of Nancy Pelosi circumventing the metal detector.
OOO!!!!! Good thinking!
There were witnesses albeit Repubs but perhaps you can come up with someone of the democrat persuasion who followed her through that day and called bullshit in the GOP claim There is no video so it's a they said - no one said differently kind of thing.
On another note, if you don't think as miss uppity speaker feels above the rules, you're probably WAAAAY mistaken.
It is many of the R's who are avoiding or flat out refusing to go through the detectors, many of them carrying firearms.
Now would be a good time to post a video of that happening.
As if they ever would.
Let's see, everyone in there has been vaccinated. The CDC says they don't need masks. The Republicans are on the side of the science!
Less than half of House republicans have been vaccinated. What other gems are you going to pull out of your er,mmm brain today ?
I have always wondered where his brain was located.
didn't read the article did ya?
Why does Nancy Pelosi hate science?
"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."
The usual suspects.
Did Louie have all his teeth ?
Were they all his, or did he 'borrow' some?
Ever notice that where ever Large Marge is, there's Ms Bobbitt?
I believe she was talking about MTG and Bobbit.
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Weelllll....can't complain about his misogyny when I was the first to mock Large Marge and Gunrena Bobbitt...but he will show his hypocrisy if he rags on us about mocking conservative women when he does it to liberal women
Good point.
Fucking attention whores. Clearly their parents never really gave them the time of day.
I think they realize that behaving like children is the only way for them to garner press for themselves.
Behaving like spoiled children will most definitely continue to garner them the MAGA vote.
I behave like a child but I don't get any press
Run for office, say stupid things and you'll get all the press you can stand.
It worked for Trump and they are after all Trumpturds.