Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) has tested positive for the coronavirus after previously refusing to wear a mask on multiple occasions.
Gohmert was supposed to fly to Texas with President Donald Trump on Wednesday but tested positive at a screening at the White House, according to Politico. On the day before he tested positive, Gohmert was at the House Judiciary Hearing with Attorney General William Barr.
My statement about today's diagnosis: pic.twitter.com/qvf7zIcgdN
— Louie Gohmert (@replouiegohmert) July 29, 2020
Gohmert told CNN in late June, “I don’t have the coronavirus, turns out as of yesterday I’ve never had it. But if I get it, you’ll never see me without a mask.”
At a White House roundtable in May, Gohmert told reporters, “I do want to advise our media friends before they write stories about how we didn’t wear masks and we didn’t possibly socially distance adequately that you saw to it that we had tests and that nobody here has the coronavirus unless it’s somebody in the media.”
He continued, “So the only reason we would wear masks is if we were trying to protect ourselves from you, the media, and we’re not scared of you. So, that’s why we can be here like this.”
Louie Gohmert:
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) May 8, 2020
“We had tests and nobody in here has the coronavirus unless it’s somebody in the media. So the only reason we would wear masks is if we were trying to protect ourselves from you, in the media. And we’re not scared of you." pic.twitter.com/vf7ySCYklr
Gohmert was previously among a number of lawmakers potentially exposed to the coronavirus at the Conservative Political Action Conference. He previously said that he spoke to a CDC doctor and that the physician cleared him to go back to his work in Washington, D.C., and he has been seen wandering around Capitol Hill and on the floor of the House without a mask.
After his test result came back positive on Wednesday, Gohmert told KETK-TV, “It’s really ironic, because, you know, a lot of people have made a big deal out of me not wearing a mask a lot, but in the last week or two. I have worn a mask, more than I have in the whole last four months.”
He added, “But I can’t help but wonder if my keeping a mask on and keeping it in place, that if I might have put some germs or some of the virus onto the mask and breathed it in — I don’t know. But I got it, we’ll see what happens from here, but the reports of my demise are very premature.”
While wearing a mask has appeared to become a partisan issue and Trump spent months refusing to appear in public with a mask, the president recently changed course and announced on Twitter that it is patriotic to wear a mask “when you can’t socially distance.”