Lori Lightfoot Caught Violating Her Own Mask Mandate at WNBA Game

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot listens to a question after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker annou
AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast
Hannah Knudsen

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) violated her own city’s mask mandate on Sunday, posting a picture of herself maskless at Game 4 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday.

“What a moment. Congrats champs! A first but not the last for @chicagosky,” the Democrat posted to Twitter alongside a picture of herself at the game, maskless, amid a masked crowd:

In August, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced the reinstitution of the city’s mask mandate, extending to all individuals ages two and older with limited exceptions, regardless of vaccination status:

Masks are required in all indoor public settings, including bars and restaurants, gyms, common areas of condos and multi-residential buildings, and private clubs. Similar to previous mask mandates, masks can be removed at restaurants, bars and other eating/drinking establishments by patrons when they are actively eating and drinking. Masks can also be removed for certain activities that require their removal, such as beard shaves or facials. Additionally, masks can be removed by employees in settings that are not open to the public, if employees are static and maintaining at least six feet from all other individuals (office cubicles, for example).

Lightfoot was not eating or drinking, as the maskless photo shows.

Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the city’s health department, has shown no sign of easing the city’s mask mandate.

“We remain in a substantial transmission standpoint from the CDC, and even if we continue to see progress at the rate we’ve been seeing it, I expect that would take probably at least another couple of weeks,” Arwady said this week.

“My big question is what’s happening between now and Thanksgiving, honestly,” she continued.

“That’s when we usually start to see respiratory viruses like flu really take off, and we’ll have a better sense,” Arwady continued. “My concern is I don’t want to say hooray, let’s take the mask off, two weeks later, we have to put them back on.”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) has also failed to definitively say when he will lift the state’s mask requirement:

Lightfoot is far from the only Democrat official to forgo the mask in public settings while expecting the general public to comply. President Biden violated D.C.’s mask mandate over the weekend, walking through an upscale Italian restaurant without a mask on:

Other notable Democrat officials who have violated their own purported beliefs on universal masking include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D).

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