Stacey Abrams Finds Herself in a Mask Controversy

She was pictured maskless among masked schoolchildren
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 9, 2022 1:50 AM CST
Updated Feb 9, 2022 6:41 AM CST
Stacey Abrams Sorry About Maskless Photo
Stacey Abrams speaks to Biden supporters as they wait for former President Barack Obama to arrive and speak at a campaign rally for Biden at Turner Field in Atlanta, Nov. 2, 2020.   (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

Stacey Abrams apologized Tuesday after a photo of her, maskless, among a group of masked schoolchildren, went viral. The Democratic candidate for Georgia governor was doing a read-aloud at a Decatur elementary school last week for Black History Month and says she had been wearing a mask, but took it off to read so that students who were listening in on Zoom could hear her. "In the excitement after I finished, because it was so much fun working with those kids, I took a picture—and that was a mistake," she tells CNN. "Protocols matter, and protecting our kids is the most important thing, and anything that can be perceived as undermining that is a mistake, and I apologize." Fox News has photos.

Abrams' political opponents had pounced on the photo, and those tired of COVID-19 restrictions, including masking in schools, which is required in Decatur, called it hypocritical. Abrams agreed it was the wrong move: "My responsibility in that moment was to explain to those kids why I was doing something they weren't doing and then as soon as possible to put that mask back on," she said. Asked in the same interview whether she would lift restrictions were she to become governor, she said the state is currently not in a "place where that conversation is ready, because we have one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country." The Washington Post rounds up other recent examples of politicians who have continued to struggle with following COVID protocols. (More Stacey Abrams stories.)

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