Congresswoman Rejects Pelosi’s Rule: ‘No One Should Be Arrested over a Mask’

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) announced Thursday she is instructing her staff to work from home to evade House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) draconian mask rule — which authorizes Capitol Police to arrest violators who resist compliance — emphasizing that “no one should be arrested over a mask.”

“I am directing my Hill staff to work from home today. No one should be arrested over a mask. We should follow the science not Speaker Pelosi,” Mace said Thursday following a Wednesday bulletin signed by Thomas Manger, Chief of Police, which authorizes Capitol Police to arrest individuals who refuse to comply with the mask mandate:

I am directing my Hill staff to work from home today. No one should be arrested over a mask. We should follow the science not Speaker Pelosi.

— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) July 29, 2021

“If a visitor or staff member fails to wear a mask after a request is made to do so, the visitor or staff shall be denied entry to the House Office Buildings or House-side of the U.S. Capitol,” it reads.

“Any person who fails to either occupy or leave the premises after being asked to do so would be subject to an arrest for Unlawful Entry,” the bulletin continues.

“This is INSANE. Might as well come into my office and arrest my entire staff. We are not wearing masks,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) shot back.

“I support the Capitol Hill Police, but the Chief of Police made a mistake here. The physician and the chief of police don’t have this authority,” he added:

This is INSANE. Might as well come into my office and arrest my entire staff. We are not wearing masks. I support the Capitol Hill Police, but the Chief of Police made a mistake here. The physician and the chief of police don’t have this authority. https://t.co/CgiSuNvE8c

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) July 29, 2021

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) concluded the rules are not about science but “power and control”:

To be clear: Pelosi is directing police to ARREST vaccinated people who aren’t wearing masks.

This isn’t about science—it’s about power and control. https://t.co/XMXxI0Dw2D

— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) July 29, 2021

On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) addressed Pelosi’s mask rule, mocking her for breaking them herself and pointing out that the guidance is, at least partially, based on a study of a vaccine not even used in the United States.

“I just left speaking with Dr. Monahan from the House. He said he used the CDC recommendation on a report that hasn’t been printed yet,” McCarthy said.

“He did not know that the report is based upon India, about a vaccine that’s not approved in America, and now he did not know that it didn’t even pass peer-review,” he continued.

“That’s why vaccinated people in this House now have to wear a mask. There is no science, but I guess the Speaker must have not known that. Why wouldn’t the Speaker know the facts?” he pressed, mocking Pelosi’s history of breaking her own rules.

“But what they [Americans] also hate about hypocrisy is when you break your own rules. It’s kind of like telling America you can’t get your own hair cut but you get caught on camera because you do it,” he said, referencing Pelosi’s infamous salon getaway last year while noting he observed her breaking her own rules on masks twice on Wednesday alone.

“Twice today I saw the Speaker in a crowded room without a mask, less than 24 hours after imposing the mask mandate,” he said, observing that “science changes somewhere around the rotunda.”