Five Texas Democrats have tested positive for COVID-19 after their maskless flight out of state to avoid voting on Republican election integrity bills in the state legislature.

Over 50 Democrats departed Austin for Washington, D.C. on a pair of flights chartered by the Texas House Democratic Caucus at a price tag of $100,000 last week.

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Numerous people pointed out that selfies taken on the plane showed none of them were wearing masks despite federal guidelines stating they should be worn on all “onboard commercial aircraft.”

The Texas Dems also met with Vice President Kamala Harris early in their trip, and have been meeting with congressional Democrats.

Texas Democrat State Rep. James Talarico defended his colleagues skirting FAA regulations under President Biden because “all of us are fully vaccinated.”

That doesn’t seem to have helped in this case.

Five Texas Democrats Test Positive

Five ‘fully vaccinated’ Texas Democrats tested positive for coronavirus following the flight, with one case being confirmed on Friday, two more on Saturday, and another two on Sunday.

“The Texas House Democratic Caucus is not naming the individuals who have tested positive, but officials with the party said all of the lawmakers in Washington have been vaccinated, including those who are now infected,” the Austin American-Statesman reports.

Still, the newspaper identified Rep. Celia Israel of Austin and Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio as two of the Texas Democrats who tested positive.

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The Statesman writes that the Democrats “are staying in the same hotel and have been meeting regularly as a caucus and traveling frequently to the Capitol to meet with federal leaders.”

Kamala Harris Met With The ‘Courageous’ Democrats

One of those leaders who met with the Texas Democrats last week was Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I know what you have done comes with great sacrifice, both personal and political,” Harris told them.

“Defending the right of the American people to vote is as American as apple pie,” she said adding that fleeing the state to avoid voting on behalf of their constituents amounts to a “courageous stand.”

A White House official told Fox News that Harris went to Walter Reed Medical Center Sunday evening for a “routine doctor’s appointment.”

A spokesperson for Harris said the Vice President and her staff who were at the meeting with the Texas Democrats “were not at risk of exposure because they were not in close contact with those who tested positive and therefore do not need to be tested or quarantined.”

Several Democrat lawmakers in January accused Republicans of recklessness for not wearing masks in the Capitol.

Democratic Representatives Brad Schneider and Pramila Jayapal were two who ended up testing positive at that time.

Schneider said he was “angry at the selfishness and arrogance of the anti-maskers who put their own contempt and disregard for decency ahead of the health and safety of their colleagues and our staff.”

Jayapal was angry that Republicans “cruelly refused to wear a mask.”

The media have spent the better part of the pandemic pointing out when Republicans and supporters of former President Trump did not wear masks, consistently referring to such events as ‘superspreaders.’

Surely they will cover these Democrats in the same manner.

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Making matters worse for the Texas Democrats, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said “once they step back into the state they will be arrested and brought back to the Capitol.”

The Texas Tribune reports that Republicans overwhelming cast a vote to “track down absent Democrats and arrest them if necessary.”

Will they be wearing their masks on the return flight?

 

This piece originally appeared in ThePoliticalInsider.com and is used by permission.

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