‘Drunk on Power’: Republican Lawmakers Bash Nancy Pelosi’s Order to Arrest Maskless Staff, Visitors On Capitol Grounds

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., dons her face mask as she hosts a visit by Ki
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Katherine Hamilton

Many House Republicans announced plans to defy House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s  “unlawful and tyrannical” order to have staff and visitors who are not wearing masks on Capitol Grounds arrested.

In a bulletin, first posted to Twitter by Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) on Thursday, Pelosi (D-CA) ordered Capitol Police officers to enforce the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which were updated on Tuesday and recommend even vaccinated people wear masks in indoor spaces.

“In today’s edition of Pelosi’s abuse of power, Capitol Police have been directed to arrest staff and visitors to comply with her mask mandate for vaccinated individuals,” Cammack’s tweet reads. “For Members, they advise not arresting but ‘reporting Members to SAA for their failure to comply.’”:

“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,” the bulletin states. “Any person who fails to either comply or leave the premises after being asked to do so would be subject to an arrest for unlawful entry…” (emphasis added). 

While officers were ordered not to arrest House members or staffers accompanying them, officers have been directed to report them to House Sergeant at Arms’ office. According to the bulletin, the Office of Attending Physician (OAP) advised Congress to follow the CDC’s updated guidance. Chief of Police J. Thomas Manger signed off on the order. 

“This is so out of control. Pelosi is massively drunk on power, obsessed with control, and hypocritical and partisan beyond belief,” Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) said in a tweet. “This isn’t just some mask mandate either. The enforcement measures are absurd. *There are now just 27 COVID-19 patients in ALL DC hospitals.”:

Pelosi’s arrest order comes after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) delivered an impassioned speech on the House floor on Wednesday, in which he specifically targeted Pelosi for her blatant “hypocrisy” after she “broke her own rules” following a new mask mandate for the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Today, the Speaker, who didn’t know even know her own science and said names to people, broke her own rules,” McCarthy said, referring to when Pelosi called him a moron. “Twice today I saw the Speaker in a crowded room without a mask, less than 24 hours after imposing the mask mandate…”

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) noted that “in Biden-Pelosi’s America the maskless are arrested while the looters, shoplifters, and border crossers go free.”

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) said Pelosi has “lost her damn mind,” and emphasized that the Capitol “is the People’s House, not her House.”

“Let me make it easy for you, Speaker Pelosi, my office, and my visitors won’t comply — have an issue with that? Come see me,” he concluded in a tweet:

“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,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) tweeted:

Cammack issued a second tweet, announcing that she will refuse to comply with a mandate that is “based on an unpublished, failed peer review study conducted in India.”

Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI) sounded the alarm on Congress’ use of the unpublished, India-based study on Wednesday, the day after CDC released its updated guidance. McCarthy also slammed Pelosi for using research that has not even been approved in the United States to make House members wear masks again.

“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.”

“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? Do you know what frustrates Americans the most? Hypocrisy,” he continued.

Rep. Claudi Tenney (R-NY) said Pelosi’s “political theater is only aimed at distracting from her radical agenda.”

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) said Pelosi’s order is “about power and control.”:

“This is insanity. Threatening arrest for not wearing a mask is unlawful and tyrannical!” Rep. Andy Biggs joined in:

According to the bulletin, the order will remain in effect until December 31, 2021.

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