ralph norman

GOP Representative Suing Nancy Pelosi Over House Mask Mandate Gets COVID

Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images

After a mask mandate was instituted in July in the not-so-vaccinated House amid the rise of the Delta variant, Republican representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie, and Ralph Norman sued Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the face-covering requirement. The latter member of this group, South Carolina representative Norman, described Pelosi’s order and others like it as “a harmful combination of virtue signaling and unjustified fear.”

But on Thursday, there was some evidence to suggest the mandate was justified: After experiencing symptoms, Norman announced that he tested positive for COVID-19 and will quarantine for ten days. The 68-year-old, who states that he was vaccinated in February, thankfully added that his “symptoms remain mild.”

Norman is not the only GOP representative to contract the virus in recent weeks: Both Florida representative Vern Buchanan and Louisiana representative Clay Higgins tested positive in July. (Over on the more-vaccinated side of the Capitol, Senator Lindsey Graham is also currently in quarantine.) Nor are Norman, Massie, and Greene the only Republicans to rebel against the House mask mandate: Last week, they were joined by several dozen more GOP representatives who barged onto the Senate floor without face coverings to protest their inconvenience.

In quarantine — with his colleagues on vacation no less — Norman may have time to reflect on last week’s Senate stunt, as well as several others from his time in office, including a sexual assault joke during the Kavanaugh hearings and pulling out a loaded gun during a conversation with constituents about violence prevention.

GOP Rep. Suing Pelosi Over House Mask Mandate Gets COVID