OPINION:
Liberals are all about demanding that people do as they say, but they never apply their rules to themselves. The COVID-19 pandemic has unmasked Democrats for the true hypocrites they are — and always have been.
Take House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The California Democrat, who has supported full lockdowns over COVID-19 and advocates a national mask policy, was caught last week dropping into a hair salon in California — ordered closed by the governor — and walking around without a mask.
In security footage obtained by Fox News, Mrs. Pelosi is seen walking through the eSalon in San Francisco on Aug. 31. Ironically, during an appearance on MSNBC that same night, Mrs. Pelosi blasted President Trump for delivering his Republican National Convention acceptance speech before a live audience on the White House South Lawn where many people were not wearing masks.
The 81-year-old California Democrat, who got a wash and a “blow-out” at the salon, took a few days to come up with a defense: It was all a setup.
“I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I’ve been to over the years many times, and when they said, ‘We’re able to accommodate people one person at a time.’ I trusted that,” the speaker said. “So I take responsibility for falling for a setup. And that’s all I’m going to say on that. I think that this salon owes me an apology, for setting me up.”
Salon owner Erica Kious told Fox News, “It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work.”
But that’s how Democrats roll — do as I say, not as I do. And if they’re caught, they’ll demand YOU apologize. It’s not just Mrs. Pelosi.
Philadelphia’s Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney doesn’t have to abide by his own rules, either — those are for the little people.
A photo of a maskless Mr. Kenney sitting inside a restaurant flashed around social media websites late last month. The mayor was in Maryland, even as his own order had banned indoor dining in his city.
The blowback was immediate.
“I guess all your press briefings and your narrative of unsafe indoor dining don’t apply to you. Thank you for clearing it all up for us tonight,” Philadelphia chef and restaurateur Marc Vetri wrote on Instagram.
Like Mrs. Pelosi, Mr. Kenney never apologized.
“I know some are upset that I dined indoors at a restaurant in Maryland yesterday. I felt the risk was low because the county I visited has had fewer than 800 COVID-19 cases, compared to over 33,000 cases in Philadelphia. Regardless, I understand the frustration,” he said.
Frustration? How about an apology?
Then there was Chris Cuomo, the very angry man on CNN.
“All right, here it is, the official re-entry from the basement, ” he said in an April video after self-quarantining from a positive COVID-19 test.
“This is what I’ve been dreaming of literally for weeks,” said the anchor as he walked up the stairs from his basement. “This is the dream. Just to be back up here doing normal things.”
But the video — intended to make viewers think that Mr. Cuomo had been in the basement for 21 days — had broken his “self-isolation” at least once before, traveling to his under-construction home in the East Hamptons on Easter Sunday.
How do we know that? Because Mr. Cuomo got into an altercation with a resident there, who was riding by on his bicycle, and later ranted about it, calling the bicyclist a “jackass, loser, fat-tire biker” on his Sirius-XM radio show.
The bicyclist confronted Mr. Cuomo, the New York Post reported, and he said Mr. Cuomo yelled at him, “Who the hell are you?! I can do what I want!”
“I can do what I want.” Spoken like a true Democrat.
And of course, Democrats decried protests against draconian rules regarding COVID-19, but were all in when protesters rioted over the death of Black men at the hands of police. Suddenly, there was no need for masks or social distancing.
Then there was this perfect hypocrisy: When Rep. John Lewis, Georgia Democrat, died in July, federal lawmakers packed into an Atlanta church for his funeral.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser had ordered that all city residents who travel to “hot spots” — like Georgia — must quarantine for 14 days upon return. But Ms. Bowser simply made all federal lawmakers exempt from her order. They’re “essential,” she said. Classic.
Remember this Election Day that Democrats want to tell you what to do — forever. They won’t do it themselves, mind you, but they expect you to toe the line.
And if they get caught, they’ll demand YOU apologize.
You can’t make this stuff up.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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