After testing positive for COVID-19 on Monday night, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) issued a scathing series of tweets, blasting Republican lawmakers who "cruelly refused to wear masks" while in a crowded room during last week's Capitol riot.
As the mob moved through the Capitol, Jayapal was ushered into a secured room with other lawmakers. Several maskless Republicans were offered face coverings, which they did not accept — in fact, Jayapal said, they "recklessly mocked colleagues and staff" who tried to hand them the masks.
"Only hours after Trump incited a deadly assault on our Capitol, many Republicans still refused to take the bare minimum COVID-19 precaution and simply wear a damn mask in a crowded room during a pandemic — creating a super-spreader event ON TOP of a domestic terror attack," Jayapal tweeted. "Any member who refuses to wear a mask should be fully held accountable for endangering our lives because of their selfish idiocy. I'm calling for every single member who refuses to wear a mask in the Capitol to be fined and removed from the floor by the Sergeant at Arms."
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On Sunday, the attending physician to Congress sent an email saying "many members of the House community" were in a specific room during the riot where they "may have been exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection." On Monday morning, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) said she tested positive for COVID-19 and believes she was exposed to the virus while sheltering in place with GOP colleagues "who refused to wear masks."
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