Pelosi Announces She’ll Be Maskless at Joint Session After Making Them Optional Just in Time for Biden’s SOTU Address

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC on Tuesday that she will not be wearing a mask during President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address.

Biden will address the country Tuesday for an hour from the House chamber beginning at 9 p.m. ET.

Masks will be optional on the House floor, following nearly a year of a strict mandate pushed by Pelosi that saw numerous GOP representatives fined repeatedly.

At one point last summer, Pelosi engaged in a war of words with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) over the mandate.

McCarthy declared on Twitter that Pelosi’s mandate defied “science.”

Make no mistake—The threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state.

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) July 28, 2021

Pelosi retorted, “He’s such a moron.”

Nine months later, after the Delta and Omicron variants spread across the country, the mandate was dropped Monday — hours ahead of Biden’s address to the American people.

The timing of Pelosi’s dropped mandate, just a day before Biden seeks to reset domestic policy through his speech, was not lost on critics of Pelosi:

And just like that: Nancy Pelosi cancels her pointless mask mandate in Congress so Biden can do the same in his speech on Tuesday.

Nobody is buying this.

— Rep. Darrell Issa (@repdarrellissa) February 28, 2022

If you were still asking whether it was the Science OR the Politics driving Pelosi’s decisions, now you know!

Pelosi’s mask mandate was never about the science, it was always about the politics. Just like her new border wall around the Capitol is all about the politics. https://t.co/i2Z32Lullm

— Rep. Claudia Tenney (@RepTenney) February 28, 2022

Nancy Pelosi ditches the mask mandate for Congress just in time for Biden’s #SOTU.

Such political convenience.

— Mississippi GOP (@MSGOP) February 28, 2022

Pelosi did not address the criticism of the timing of dropping the mandate on Tuesday when she joined Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC.

But she was clear when speaking with host Andrea Mitchell she will be mask-less as she sits behind Biden during his remarks.

“Today D.C officially lifted its indoor mask guidance,” Mitchell noted, before she asked her, “Are you going to be wearing a mask tonight?”

Pelosi responded:

No, I’m not going to be wearing a mask tonight. If I had little children or were around little grandchildren, I would because some of them would not be vaccinated. Or if I were around a person or I was a person with some kind of a condition that would make me susceptible to it. So, I think people have to use their judgment about it. But I do think that if people make their own judgment, I’m making my own judgment, that I won’t be wearing a mask tonight.

Watch above, via MSNBC.