US Capitol Police have been ordered to arrest visitors and staff who refuse to wear a mask on the House side of the Capitol complex.
The policy, which goes into effect on Thursday, will not apply to members of Congress who refuse to wear masks, according to a police memo obtained by a lawmaker.
Members of Congress who do not wear masks inside the complex will be reported to the House sergeant-at-arms, according to the memo.
House Republicans blasted Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the ‘tyrannical’ directive, but the Democrat’s office responded that she ‘does not control the US Capitol Police.’
Republicans in the House of Representatives on Thursday vowed to defy a requirement that visitors and staff wear masks inside the Capitol. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is seen above on Wednesday
US Capitol Police have been ordered to arrest visitors and staff who refuse to wear a mask on the House side of the Capitol complex. Capitol Police Mountain Bike officers secure the plaza on Thursday (above)
House Rep. Kat Cammack, a Republican from Florida, posted a copy of the memo on her Twitter feed
Cammack tweeted: ‘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 then vowed that she would defy the mask requirement. ‘I will not comply, Nancy,’ the congresswoman tweeted.
House Rep. Kat Cammack, a Republican from Florida, posted a copy of the memo on her Twitter feed.
Cammack tweeted: ‘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.
‘For Members, they advise not arresting but “reporting Members to SAA for their failure to comply”.’
Cammack then vowed that she would defy the mask requirement.
‘I will not comply, Nancy,’ the congresswoman tweeted.
‘Certainly not with a mandate that is based on an unpublished, failed peer review study conducted in India.
‘This is not your House. This is the People’s House.
‘Get it right.’
Cammack told Fox News that she received a copy of the memo from an unnamed officer.
She said that police officers that she’s spoken to are ‘very uncomfortable’ with the directive, which the lawmaker said was ‘tyrannical.’
‘This is such an overstep of Speaker Pelosi’s authority to basically make our Capitol Police arrest staff members and report on members [of Congress],’ Cammack told Fox News on Thursday.
‘It’s absolutely unconscionable that this is where we’re at.’
Cammack’s caucus joined her in condemning Pelosi.
The official Twitter account of the House GOP caucus tweeted: ‘OUTRAGEOUS!’
House Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky tweeted: ‘This is INSANE.
‘Might as well come into my office and arrest my entire staff. We are not wearing masks.’
Massie added: ‘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.’
House Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina, tweeted: ‘Wow. I’m speechless.’
Brian Mast, a GOP lawmaker from Florida, tweeted: ‘New orders issued to ARREST Americans visiting our nation’s capitol who refuse to bend to Pelosi’s big government mandates.
‘This has always been about power, and I’m afraid this is just the beginning of the lengths she is willing to go to obtain it.’
House Rep. Greg Murphy, a Republican from North Carolina, tweeted: ‘*Speechless*.’
Congresswoman Claudia Tenney of New York tweeted: ‘Pelosi’s political theater is only aimed at distracting from her radical agenda.’
Tenney noted that 85 percent of House members are vaccinated, as are 70 percent of the Congressional workforce.
She also noted that transmission rate on Capitol Hill is just .5 percent. The Senate does not have a mask mandate.
House Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican from New York, tweeted: ‘This is so out of control.
‘Pelosi is massively drunk on power, obsessed with control, and hypocritical and partisan beyond belief.’
Pelosi on Wednesday called House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy a ‘moron’ for opposing new face mask guidelines
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy said the new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on face masks were not ‘based on science’ but from ‘liberal government officials’
A spokesperson for Pelosi told Fox News: ‘The speaker of the House does not control the US Capitol Police.
‘We were unaware of the memo until it was reported in the press.’
Pelosi on Wednesday called House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy a ‘moron’ for opposing new guidelines requiring fully-vaccinated people in certain areas to wear face masks.
Pelosi was defending new face mask requirements in the House – where fully-vaccinated people will be required to wear masks in accordance with new CDC guidance – when she was asked about comments from McCarthy.
Getting into her SUV, Pelosi was heard muttering of him: ‘He’s such a moron.’
McCarthy claimed the new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on face masks were not ‘based on science’ but from ‘liberal government officials.’
‘Make no mistake – the threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state,’ McCarthy wrote on Twitter Tuesday.
That is when she fired off her insult, the latest strike between the two leaders, who have seen new levels of bipartisan bickering.
Asked later to clarify her remark, Pelosi didn’t deny it but said: ‘To say that wearing a mask is not based on science, I think it’s is not wise, and that was my comment and that’s all I’m gonna say about that.’
McCarthy snapped back, sarcastically calling Pelosi ‘brilliant.’
‘Well, if she’s so brilliant, can she tell me where the science in the building changes between the House and the Senate? Can she explained to me when the CDC says only vaccinated people need to wear a mask in hotspots?,’ he told reporters on Capitol Hill.
The House has reinstituted a mask mandate for everyone – including those fully vaccinated. The Senate has not.