Biden Caught on Video Violating D.C. Mask Mandate at Upscale Restaurant

 President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden were seen violating Washington, D.C.’s indoor mask mandate at an upscale Georgetown restaurant on Saturday.

Video of the incident shows the Bidens walking through Fiola Mare without masks, in violation of the district’s indoor mask policy, which Mayor Muriel Bowser reinstated in July amid rising cases of the delta variant of COVID-19. 

The Italian seafood restaurant, where the pair dined after attending a service at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, has a mask policy that is in line with that of the city.

“Per CDC guidance and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s executive order, all individuals over age 2 are required to wear a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status. Masks must be always worn while in our restaurants, except while eating and drinking. Thank you for understanding,” Fiola Mare’s website says.

Businesses that do not enforce the mayor’s executive order on masking may receive warnings, fines and revocation of licenses. However, the order makes an exception for “persons in the federal government or legislative branch of the District government while those persons are on duty.”

The president’s masking violation comes after months of Biden and his administration touting the power and importance of masks in slowing the spread of COVID-19, regardless of a person’s vaccination status. 

Biden is not the first Democrat to become ensnared in a mask-mandate scandal – both California Governor Gavin Newsom and the D.C. mayor have been criticized during the pandemic after breaking their own rules on masking. 

Last November, photos obtained by FOX 11 Los Angeles showed the governor and his wife  in an unmasked group eating shoulder-to-shoulder indoors at a birthday party for Jason Kinney, a longtime lobbyist and Newsom adviser, at French Laundry.

Meanwhile, Bowser came under fire in July after she held her own maskless birthday celebration hours before her mask mandate went into effect. She was again seen maskless hours after the mandate went into effect during an indoor wedding reception.

In September, she again flouted her own mask rules when she shared a picture of herself maskless with a group of women at an indoor Jack and Jill summit.