Dem Mask Hypocrisy on Full Display

Last week ended with perennial Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, a Democrat, posting pictures of herself maskless in a classroom full of masked children and teachers. When the public reacted negatively to the images, Abrams defended herself by explaining that she had only appeared maskless in photos on the condition that everyone else around her did don face-coverings. Much better, then.

Abrams is far from alone, though. The pandemic has seen countless examples of politicians convinced that while it’s imperative that the little people — be they younger or less famous and wealthy — wear masks as their patriotic duty, the VIPs should remain exempt from such strictures.

Just a few days after Abrams’s gaffe, Representative Elissa Slotkin posted a picture of what appeared to be a townhall event in her district. Slotkin is in the foreground wearing an enormous smile. The other attendees appear in the background, wearing masks.

Last year, meanwhile, New York governor Kathy Hochul — while she was still serving as lieutenant governor to Andrew Cuomo — posed maskless behind a group of masked schoolchildren. The picture represented not just an act of hypocrisy, but also potentially of law-breaking. At that time, a mask mandate order from Cuomo remained in effect in K-12 schools during school hours, but not for after-school programs.

A few months later, after she assumed the governorship, Hochul posted pictures of herself drinking beer and chatting up other maskless patrons in a crowded sports bar. This came shortly after Hochul had instituted a mask mandate for all children over the age of two, staff, and visitors at child care facilities in the state of New York.

Also in New York, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared — alongside numerous other celebrities — at the Met Gala in a designer dress with the words “Tax the Rich” emblazoned on the back of it. Ocasio-Cortez walked the red carpet maskless next to her outfit’s designer. Staff and media at the event were required to remain masked.

Ocasio-Cortez responded to criticism by asserting that “I and my body have been so heavily and relentlessly policed from all corners politically since the moment I won my election that it’s become kind of expected and normalized to me.”

“Ultimately, the haters hated,” she continued.

Washington, D.C., mayor Muriel Bowser has also flouted her own jurisdiction’s Covid restrictions. Hours after an indoor mask mandate went into effect at her own direction last summer, Bowser was photographed attending a wedding maskless by Tiana Lowe of the Washington Examiner.

Bowser defended herself by declaring that she had only removed her mask while actively eating or drinking, but Lowe and the Examiner posted video of her remaining maskless while doing neither in the packed venue.

On the West Coast, another Democratic mayor, San Francisco’s London Breed, was loath to follow her own mask mandate and full of excuses as to why she shouldn’t have to. After singing and dancing in a crowded club, Breed decried the “fun police” while professing to have been “feeling the spirit” at the time.

Just a few months later, Breed joined Hochul as a repeat offender, once again being caught dancing and singing loudly in a club.

In southern California, Breed, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, and Governor Gavin Newsom all found themselves in hot water after posing next to former Lakers star Magic Johnson, who is afflicted with HIV, without a mask in violation of a local mandate during the NFC conference championship. Garcetti’s justified it by explaining that he “holds his breath” during photos.

And then, there’s the coup de grace. The Democratic caucus in Texas’s state senate fled the state last summer in order to block the passage of a bill (one that was later enacted despite their best efforts) meant to modestly change the way the state’s elections were carried out. If you’ve flown anywhere since the start of the pandemic, you’re surely familiar with the federal mask mandate for commercial flights, and with how vigorously it’s enforced. Here’s how the truant legislators advertised their escapade.

They worked around any mandates, however, by flying private.

The expressed excuses differ by instance, the revealed one is the the same in every.