Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday after long dismissing the necessity of wearing masks, has cooked up a truly bold spin on his predicament.
“I can’t help but wonder if by keeping a mask on and keeping it in place that if I might have put some germs, some of the virus, onto the mask and breathed it in,” Gohmert told KETK News in a Skype interview several hours after news of his diagnosis broke. Gohmert said he’s worn a mask “in the last week or two” (he did not wear a mask on Tuesday while interacting with Attorney General Bill Barr, who also was not wearing a mask).
The Texas lawmaker also stated that he didn’t have any symptoms of the virus.
“I’m asymptomatic,” Gohmert said in a video he posted on Twitter.
The revelation is particularly striking given that the express purpose of wearing a mask, which Gohmert has largely refused to do, is to prevent those with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic from unwittingly transmitting the virus to others.
And yet Gohmert remains opposed to mask mandates.
“If somebody feels strongly about everybody should wear a mask, then they shouldn’t be around people that don’t wear masks,” he said during the KETK News interview.
However, that standard doesn’t exactly apply to Gohmert’s own aides, one of whom told Politico that the congressman requires all staffers to be in the office to “be an example to America on how to open up safely” and that those who wore masks were “berated.”
