They’re laughing at you.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser this week shared a photo showing her in apparent violation of her own indoor masking policy.
“Tonight I spoke to students from around the country gathered for the Jack and Jill On the Hill Legislative Summit,” Bowser’s office said on Twitter. “It’s the passion of our youth that gives me hope for the future of DC and our nation. Their voices matter, and I will continue to work to give them a #FairShot!”
The tweet includes a photo. The picture, which was taken Thursday inside the Washington Hilton Hotel, shows Bowser flanked closely on both sides by eight women. No one in the photo is wearing a mask.
For the record, D.C.’s indoor masking policy, which the mayor reimposed in late July, is still in effect. It applies to both vaccinated and unvaccinated persons over the age of 2.
The city’s guidance states specifically:
There is a handful of exceptions to the indoor masking rule, including for when someone is actively eating or drinking. Bowser tried to hide behind this carve-out when she was caught last month going maskless at an indoor wedding reception, only she was neither eating nor drinking when photographed.
Other exemptions include:
- Indoor gatherings at private residences
- Actively playing or training for indoor sports in a collegiate or professional sports setting
- In the water at a swimming pool or aquatic facility
- Alone in an enclosed office that no one else is permitted to enter
- Giving a speech for broadcast or an audience, provided no one is within six feet of the speaker
- Speaking to or translating for a Deaf or hard of hearing person
- Required to use equipment for a job that precludes the wearing of a mask and the person is wearing or using that equipment, or when wearing a mask would endanger public safety
- Lawfully asked to remove their mask for facial recognition purposes
None of these appear to apply to Bowser as she posed this week for a group photo in Washington. She was in an “indoor public setting,” and she was not eating or drinking at the time the picture was taken.
The mayor’s office did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
In July, when Bowser reimposed the indoor masking policy, her office explicitly warned in the “enforcement” provision of the order that “any individual or entity that knowingly violates this order … may be subject to civil and administrative penalties authorized by law, including sanctions and or penalties for violating D.C. Official Code §7-2307, which can result in civil fines of not more than $1,000 or summary suspension or revocation of licenses.”
Tellingly, the July order was also careful to add, “The enforcement provision of this order shall not be applied to persons in the federal government or legislative branch of the District government while those persons are on duty.”
Again, they’re laughing at you.
