Pelosi tells two conservative lawmakers to wear face masks on the floor after a tense discussion with House officials

The two lawmakers, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Chip Roy of Texas, were voting on Tuesday when the exchange took place.

CNN witnessed Roy without a mask and engaged in an animated conversation with the team. Roy declined to comment to CNN after leaving the room.

Asked about the matter, Greene’s office said the congresswoman was “perfectly healthy and was negative for COVID yesterday at the White House”.

“Spokesperson Pelosi addressed the congresswoman directly and demanded that she put on her mask while she was on the floor,” the spokesman told CNN in a statement.

The spokesman then accused Pelosi of allowing “a positive COVID Democrat to waltz through the Capitol complex and on the floor of the House”, referring to Democratic MP Gwen Moore, who announced that she had tested positive for Covid last week and after he voted in the House just six days after announcing his diagnosis of Covid-19.

Moore, who wore a mask at the House floor on Sunday, said in a statement on Tuesday that guidance from Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician of the United States Congress, was followed.

“Although I was quarantined immediately after the exposure on December 22 and tested positive the next day, I have been diligent in working with doctors to put my health and public health first,” she said in the statement.

And three lawmakers, two Democrats and one Republican, voted on Sunday for a “safe haven” since they were exposed to someone with Covid-19, but later tested negative for the virus, according to the Capitol doctor. CNN witnessed Republican Representative Jeff Fortenberry’s vote on Sunday from an acrylic fenced area above the floor of the House, wearing a mask and face shield.

A senior Democratic aide told CNN Greene that the statement about “the positive Democratic Covid” “is not accurate”. The aide added that Greenea and Roy were repeatedly asked by the House’s weapons sergeant to put on their masks. House rules require members to wear their masks at all times in the House floor.

The heated shuttle comes hours after minority leader in the House Kevin McCarthy, minority leader Steve Scalise, Republican Party conference chairman Liz Cheney and the main Republican of the House management committee, Rodney Davis, sent a letter to Pelosi saying that she “completely abandoned” security protocols on Sunday’s Opening Session so she could have the votes to be re-elected speaker.

“The detailed guidance on logistics for January 3 issued under his direction by the sergeant-in-arms and the attending physician has been completely abandoned,” wrote the leaders of the Republican Party. “The reality is that (the plexiglass structure) was built because it was politically beneficial for you to have members voting on your behalf for mayor.”

The Democratic aide also told CNN that the letter from the Republican Party leadership on Tuesday morning “was full of falsehoods”.

“None of these members were positive, they were all asymptomatic and the tests were negative,” said the aide.

This is not the first time that Greene, a conservative freshman from Northwest Georgia, has been reprimanded by City officials for entering the room without a mask. She was repeatedly told on Sunday to wear a mask as well.

Greene told Newsmax on Tuesday that he “will be battling” the requirement to wear masks in the House floor because “all the rules were thrown out the window” on Sunday.

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