Stacey Abrams wades into school mask debate after maskless photo with children
NBC News / Comcast ^ | February 8, 2022 | By Alex Seitz-Wald
Posted on 2/8/2022, 10:32:36 AM by
WASHINGTON — In normal times, a politician could hardly do something less controversial than pose for a photo with kids. But these are not normal times.
Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat making her second run for governor, faced intense blowback Monday after sharing — and then quickly deleting — a photo of her smiling unmasked face surrounded by masked elementary school children.
Abrams visited a Decatur elementary school to promote reading and Black History Month. But not since George W. Bush continued reading "The Pet Goat" to Florida students on Sept. 11, 2001, has such a benign event turned into such a political blunder.
Abrams, who supports school mask mandates, was immediately accused of hypocritically violating the school's mask policy and pilloried by Republican politicians and conservative media outlets.
Democrats say the controversy is much ado about nothing, noting that Abrams wore a mask to the school and removed it only for the photo and a speech.
But the photo touched a nerve, Republicans say, because it displays the out-of-touch piety that they say leads liberals to impose onerous societal norms without feeling obligated to always follow them themselves.
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