If you unilaterally issue a sweeping mandate on the city you govern while you obviously intend to flout that rule, you are guilty of corruption, abuse of power, and also dishonesty.
When Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., issued her universal mask mandate last week, she was stating that vaccinated people gathering indoors was dangerous and that masking was necessary to stop the spread.
But she obviously didn’t believe that. Just after issuing the order, she threw herself a maskless birthday party. She then officiated and attended a mostly maskless indoor wedding reception after the order had gone into effect.
Her mask order rested on an assertion in which she expressed belief — that vaccinated people cannot safely gather indoors unmasked. But she didn’t believe it. Therefore, the order was an act of dishonesty.
Given that background, there’s no reason to give her the benefit of the doubt now as she attacks my Washington Examiner colleague Tiana Lowe, who originally exposed Bowser’s unmasked hypocrisy.
More from Mayor Bowser’s office: “If Mayor Bowser was photographed indoors without a mask, it was taken during the indoor dinner, when she was eating or drinking.”
— Evan Lambert (@EvanLambertTV) August 1, 2021
Bowser claimed she was wearing a mask except when eating or drinking. Then, Lowe released a video showing this was a lie. And it was a “mostly masked” reception. One ought to hesitate to accuse another of dishonesty, but the pattern here is hard to ignore.
Then, there are Bowser’s inexcusable attacks on Lowe.
When a reporter mentioned Lowe’s reporting to Bowser at a press conference, the mayor cut her off and said, “If you want to report on the right-wing wingnuts, have at it, but I’m not gonna give it a lot of energy.”
“What I know is we have a lot of COVID deniers out there who are largely responsible for the country not being able to recover from COVID, because for many months, they have been telling their followers not to get vaccinated, who have spent two or three days spreading disinformation,” Bowser said.
The bottom line is that Bowser sat unmasked at the indoor reception with no food or drink in her hand (or even visible before her) because she didn’t think there was anyone watching who would tell on her. Then, when she gets caught breaking her own rules, she lied and claimed she was masked except when eating. Then, when that lie is busted, she attacks the messenger dishonestly. If you read anything Lowe has written about vaccines, then you know she is just about the furthest thing there is from being an anti-vaccination advocate.
Bowser is using her power as mayor to attack critics, and she now has an established pattern of lying. That doesn’t seem to be a great thing for a mayor. I hope the entire local media will continue to hold her to account for it.
