Malliotakis: Hochul Keeping New York School Mask Mandate ‘to Appease the Teachers’ Union’ 

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America Reports,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is keeping the state’s mask mandate for schools while eliminating it for businesses “to appease the teachers’ union.”

Malliotakis said, “Well, it’s interesting that you don’t need the masks now in businesses, but you do need them in schools. So, certainly, it’s political here. I believe because Kathy Hochul is in a primary with somebody from the left, she’s doing this to appease the teachers’ union. What I’ll say is that my colleagues and I from New York, we’ve been pushing and yesterday, again, we wrote another letter to the governor asking her to join the states of New Jersey and Connecticut and, as you now reported, Massachusetts, in lifting these mandates. We believe that it should be the parents’ choice on whether their student, their child is wearing a mask in the classroom, and that should be a personal health decision made by families, not by a governor. Particularly when you’re seeing politicians like Stacey Abrams maskless in a school for a photo op. You’re seeing Sen. Schumer dancing salsa without a mask in Puerto Rico. It’s the hypocrisy and the double standard that I think Americans have had enough of, and that is why you’re seeing so many come out and really be vocal pushing for their rights and freedoms.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett