Five House Republicans will not attend President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address on Tuesday, with many blaming COVID-19 safety precautions that they claim are "not necessary" as the reason.
Illinois Rep. Mary Miller, Virginia Rep. Bob Good, Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale, and Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde told The Daily Caller on Tuesday that they will not attend the State of the Union.
This came one day after Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy and Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio announced that they would skip the event.
Rosendale accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of "politicizing the State of the Union to further the Radical Left's COVID-19 agenda. Members of Congress should not be subject to COVID-19 tests and social distance when it is not necessary, and the entire nation has ended most, if not all, coronavirus restrictions."
Good said, "President Biden subjected the country to life-altering mandates for over a year. I will not submit to an unnecessary COVID test to attend a State of the Union only to hear this president whisper through a speech that will inevitably fail to take responsibility for the tremendous damage he has and continues to cause to our country."
Clyde told the Daily Caller, "Political pandemic theater has defined the last two years, and despite Democrats' attempts to conceal their hypocrisy, tonight's shenanigans for the State of the Union are not the exception to their preposterous hysteria.
"Just last week, the presence of my maskless face on the House floor would rack up more fines under my name, but today, conveniently in time for President Biden's State of the Union address, all members are free to decide whether they wear a mask or not."
The Capitol physician said on Sunday that masks will not be required inside the Capitol building starting this week after the rate of positive COVID-19 results at the Capitol's testing center lowered to 2.7%.
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