(Headline USA) Freshman Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., said this week that he will boycott all events with President Joe Biden in protest of the White House’s ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.
Referring to the White House’s requirements that all guests provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test 24 hours prior to visiting the White House and show proof of vaccination, LaLota said he would not abide by “excessive and unnecessary” expectations.
“Out of protest, I will not be attending President Biden’s gathering of Freshman House Members at the White House this week. Even though four months ago the president told 60 Minutes that the pandemic is over, the White House is today enforcing arbitrary, outdated and unscientific pandemic protocols upon members of Congress who accepted the President’s invitation to meet him at the White House,” LaLota said in a statement.
“Arbitrary and unscientific” pandemic protocols like the White House’s should be “far behind us,” LaLota added.
LaLota’s decision was cheered by his upstate colleague, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., the Republican Conference chair.
“For too long, the Biden Administration has worked to force their COVID-19 vaccine mandates on Americans and extend their authoritarian protocols,” Stefanik said, according to the New York Post. “It is past time for them to recognize the pandemic is over and end these requirements at the White House, instead of continuing to virtue signal to appeal to the Far Left.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre continued the president’s continued enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions on Tuesday, claiming “we pay very close attention to the science.”
“We have protections in place to protect staff and the president of the United States. COVID isn’t over. We’ve been very clear about that,” Jean-Pierre claimed. “Hundreds of Americans are dying every day and cases are increasing right now, today. And that’s why we take common sense measures like COVID testing ahead of large indoor gatherings at the White House.”
