Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) appeared unmasked at an event in Alachua County, Florida, over the weekend while everyone in her vicinity was wearing a mask, according to a video that surfaced Monday.
Demings is seen in the minute-long clip, shared by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), surrounded by adults who are all masked applauding her.
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The video comes as Democrat leaders across the country are getting caught in photos and videos without masks while at the same time advocating for masking or mandating masking on average Americans.
In perhaps the most illustrative example yet, just north of Demings, Georgia Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was photographed on Friday without a mask in front of dozens of masked elementary school children while parents across the country have expressed outrage over governments and school officials forcing masking on kids, who are at a low risk of severe illness from coronavirus.
Other recent instances of mask-happy Democrats appearing maskless have come from California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D), Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and more.
Demings was a vocal mask proponent in 2020 and 2021, though she has not been as adamant on the matter as her husband, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings (D). Jerry Demings last July stood against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) — who had signed legislation protecting Floridians’ freedom to choose whether to wear a mask — and mandated Orange County employees wear masks, as well as mandated that all non-union county employees get vaccinated.
Val Demings is hoping to unseat incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in this year’s U.S. Senate race in the Sunshine State battleground. Upon seeing the video of a maskless Demings, Rubio’s Senate campaign piled on to the criticism that Democrat politicians nationwide are attracting for appearing unmasked while their party is the one that has been advocating for mandates.
“Val Demings got caught joining the ‘Masks for thee, but not for me’ club this week,” Rubio Communications Director Elizabeth Gregory said in a statement provided to Breitbart News. “Washington Democrats like Demings spent two years imposing mandates on American families while they lived by a different set of rules. Floridians will overwhelmingly reject this elitism and hypocrisy this November.”
The NRSC, the predominant Republican Senate campaign committee which initially shared the video of Demings, also bashed the Florida Democrat for hypocrisy, saying in a statement that “Democrats are all about more rules, until it affects them.”
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.
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