The White House remains silent in response to reports that President Joe Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry was photographed without his mask on a commercial flight.
The photo of Kerry, reading a book on the flight without his mask, was first published by the Tennessee Star. According to the report, Kerry was not eating or drinking when the photo was taken aboard an American Airlines flight from Boston to Washington, D.C.
The White House referred a question from Breitbart News about the photo to the climate change communications team at the State Department. That request was not returned.
**UPDATE**
Kerry responded to the photos by denying the claim as “malarkey” in a message posted to social media.
On the day he was inaugurated President of the United States, Biden signed an executive order requiring a federal mask mandate for every American traveling in public airspace.
The photo of Kerry quickly spread across social media as an example of Washington elites breaking federal rules that would get an average citizen kicked off a plane and banned from future flights.
American Airlines restated their policy on social media and said they would investigate the incident.
“We require masks on board our aircraft and are looking into this,” they wrote.