Rep. Taylor Greene Shreds Warning from Pelosi on Face Masks

Freshman Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shredded a warning letter from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her refusal to wear a mask on the House floor. 

“You can’t discriminate against people simply because they won’t wear a mask,” Greene said in a video she posted to Twitter. “Today, I refused to wear a mask on the House floor, and I received a warning from Speaker Pelosi that leads to fines if I continue to refuse to wear a mask.”

“Well, here’s what I think of your warning, Speaker Pelosi,” Greene said before putting the memo in the shredder.

A mask mandate is still in place for the House despite Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines released last week that said Americans don’t have to wear masks if they have been vaccinated. 

Six GOP lawmakers have been fined $500 by the House sergeant-at-arms for refusing to wear a mask, including Taylor-Greene, Reps. Brian Mast of Florida, Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, Beth Van Duyne of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Any additional offenses will lead to a fine of $2,500. 

House members make $14,500 a month. 

Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Louie Gohmert of Texas were given warnings earlier in the week but opted to wear masks the following day. 

Pelosi is not budging on the mandate and says masks must be worn in chamber and committee rooms until all lawmakers are vaccinated. 

“If Minority Leader McCarthy wants to be maskless on the Floor of the House of Representatives, he should get to work vaccinating his Members,” said a spokesperson for Pelosi, according to the Washington Examiner.

McCarthy on Wednesday sought a resolution to lift the mask rule but was shut down overwhelmingly by Democrats. 

House Republicans earlier this month urged Pelosi to “follow the science” as “CDC guidance states fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance in any setting except where required by governmental or workplace mandate.”

Most Republicans won’t say whether they’ve received a vaccine, including Taylor-Greene, whose run-ins with Democratic colleagues is nothing new.

The freshman lawmaker was accused last week of verbally assaulting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., during a 2019 visit to congressional offices at the U.S. Capitol – back when Taylor Greene was not in office. 

Earlier this year, freshman Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri said she would move her office away from Taylor Greene’s following a heated exchange in which Bush confronted Taylor Greene about not wearing her mask in a hallway on Capitol Hill. 

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