“The Biden government is already heading in the wrong direction,” Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) Said Friday. ” An ongoing federal overreaction will not end the Covid-19 pandemic or put food on the table. ”
And within a few days, it became clear that opponents would not only complain about the mask mandate, but also actually fight.
“Definitely expect lawsuits from our state, private lawsuits,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a Texas-based GOP strategist and former campaign manager for Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas).
The setback against Biden’s masked mandate is the earliest, most complex sign to date that consensus will be nearly impossible to form in a still very divided DC. This raises questions about how far the new government is prepared to go to crush the remnants. of a deadly pandemic, with the expectation of another 100,000 deaths in the next month and the widespread vaccination still months away.
Under the executive order, Biden orders departments and agencies under its jurisdiction “to take immediate action to mask and maintain physical distance from persons in federal buildings or on federal lands, on-duty or on-site federal employees, and federal contractors on site. , ”According to the White House.
But the order also requires masks on various modes of public transportation, including trains, planes and buses. And that is the provision, according to lawyers who have disputed mask mandates in the past, may be the most vulnerable to a legal challenge.
While Republicans warn of the possibility of overreaction, it does not appear that the White House will play a direct role in punishing those who dispute the mask mandate. A White House official said agencies would be tasked with enforcing the order as they saw fit. National parks must also comply with the mask order, but the White House says it allows officials overseeing the parks to draw up their own guidelines for indoor and outdoor spaces on their properties.
At least one lawyer leading a court case against masked mandates said the language was strongly written in Biden’s order, perhaps in anticipation of legal challenges.
“In the summary I reviewed, I see evidence of thorough reflection and planning to meet challenges,” said Seldon Childers, a Florida attorney who has a pending case disputing mask mandates. “I think they’ll probably get the preference if they have authority regulations.”
Scientists and epidemiologists say wearing a mask is a critical way to slow the spread of Covid. And it was no surprise that Biden made the mandate one of his first appearances in office. Throughout the campaign, he promised to act on the first day of his presidency.
But the setback was still complicated. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) came up with Biden’s mask mandate idea on Twitter a month ago. “On the first day,” he said, “I will tell you to kiss my ass.”
And after the formal inauguration of the mandate, Republicans chased BIden and called him a hypocrite because he did not wear a mask during the Lincoln Memorial, hours after he signed the mandate.
“Typical Democrat – rules for you, not for me,” tweeted former Trump campaign official Marc Lotter.
Ari Fleischer, former press secretary of George W. Bush, tweeted a New York Post story entitled “President Biden wears mask at Lincoln Memorial hours after the mandate.”
On Thursday, a Fox News reporter asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki at a news conference if Biden was practicing what he was preaching.
“We take a number of Covid precautions, as you know here, in terms of testing, social distance, carrying ourselves like every day,” Psaki said.
State Representative Anthony Sabatini, who has filed more than a dozen local lawsuits to fight the mask’s mandates in provinces across the state, has insisted on the scientific consensus. He challenged the idea that masks actually reduce the spread of the virus. He pointed to California, where compliance is high, even though the cases of Covid-19 have skyrocketed. He also insisted that there was no practical point to it, because according to most federal properties, most masks are needed and Biden’s move was considered political.
“I think he’s the guy about optics, it’s not really about results,” Sabatini said. “He wants to convey his message that he cares. He gives more to look like he’s doing something. ”
Biden’s advisers do not necessarily dispute the idea that the point of the order is not the mandate itself, but the optics and message it sends. They say Biden believes it is important for Americans to hear a clear message about the benefits of wearing a mask – with one White House official saying there is “no unifying standard” under Donald Trump. But the edict is also part of what they described as an attempt to limit the spread of the virus at all times, which Biden has repeatedly warned would be a ‘dark winter’. And the more compliance the mask carries, Biden advisers say, the more the country has the opportunity to dispel the spread of the virus.
– with reporting by Mark Scott and Tin Nguyen