“The Biden government is already going in the wrong direction,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Col.) On Friday. “Continued federal expansion 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’s mandate, but would also actively fight it.
“We definitely look forward to legal action from our state, private action,” said Brendan Steinhauser, strategist for the Republican Party in Texas and former campaign manager for Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas).
Resistance against Biden’s mask mandate is the first and most visceral sign that it will be almost impossible to form a consensus in a still very divided DC. And it raises questions about how far the new government is willing to go to crush what remains of a lethal pandemic, with another 100,000 deaths expected next month and widespread vaccination a few months away.
According to the executive order, Biden is directing departments and agencies under his jurisdiction “to take immediate action to require people in federal buildings or on federal land, on-site or on-site federal employees and on-site federal contractors to wear a mask and maintain physical distance, ”according to the White House.
But the order also requires masks on various means of public transport, including trains, planes and intercity buses. And it is this provision, say lawyers who have contested masking mandates in the past, that may be the most vulnerable to legal challenge.
Although Republicans are warning of the potential for exaggeration, it does not appear that the White House will have a direct role in penalizing those who violate the mask’s mandate. A White House official said the agencies will be tasked with enforcing the order as they see fit. National parks must also obey the order of the masks, but the White House says it is allowing the authorities that oversee the parks to create their own guidelines for indoor and outdoor spaces on their properties.
At least one lawyer who led a lawsuit opposing masked warrants said that the language in Biden’s order appeared to be rigidly written, perhaps in anticipation of legal challenges.
“In the summary I reviewed, I see evidence of careful thinking and planning to anticipate challenges,” said Seldon Childers, a Florida lawyer who has a pending case contesting mask terms. “I think they are likely to prevail in having authority regulations.”
Scientists and epidemiologists say wearing masks is a critical means of delaying the spread of Covid. And it was no surprise that Biden made the term one of his first acts in office. Throughout the campaign, he pledged to act on the first day of his presidency.
But the resistance was nevertheless visceral. A month ago, Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) was rebuking the idea of Biden’s mask mandate on Twitter. “On the first day,” he said, “I will tell you to kiss my ass.”
And after the formal introduction of the mandate, Republicans went after BIden, calling him a hypocrite for not wearing a mask at the Lincoln Memorial hours after he signed the mandate.
“Typical Democrat – rules for you, not for me,” tweeted former Trump campaign officer Marc Lotter.
Ari Fleischer, a former George W. Bush press secretary, tweeted a story in the New York Post entitled “President Biden abandons his mask at the Lincoln Memorial hours after his term.”
At a news conference on Thursday, a Fox News reporter lobbied White House press secretary Jen Psaki to see if Biden was practicing what he preached.
“We took a series of precautions from Covid, as you know here, in terms of testing, social distance, wearing a mask, as we do every day,” said Psaki.
Pushing against scientific consensus, Florida State Representative Anthony Sabatini, who has filed more than a dozen local lawsuits to combat mask mandates in counties across the state, has challenged the notion that masks really reduce the spread of the virus . He pointed to California, where compliance is high, even with the Covid-19 cases firing. He also insisted that there was no practical point for this, since, according to him, most federal properties already require masks and consider Biden’s move to be political.
“I think he is the guy who cares about optics and not about results,” said Sabatini. “He wants to get his message across that he cares. He is more concerned with looking like he’s doing something. ”
Biden consultants do not necessarily contest the idea that the purpose of the request is not the mandate itself, but the optics and the message it sends. They say Biden felt it was important for Americans to hear a clear message about the benefits of wearing masks – with a White House official saying there was “no unifying standard” under Donald Trump. But the announcement is also part of what they described as a total effort to stem the spread of the virus at a time that Biden repeatedly warned it would be a “dark winter”. And the more obedience to wearing masks, Biden advisers say, the more the country has an opportunity to reduce the spread of the virus.
Mark Scott and Tina Nguyen contributed to this report.