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Trump impeachment vote: GOP’s Tom McClintock defends POTUS with mask that says 'mask is useless as our Governor'

This is not the first time the lawmaker has worn messaging along with his mask. On Tuesday, McClintock wore a mask that read, 'This Mask Is USELESS,' when he was at the Capitol that day

On Wednesday, January 13, during the proceedings for the impeachment of President Donald Trump -- based on his incitement of the January 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol -- Representative Tom McClintock said that while he did not like the president’s speech on January 6, he did not find Trump’s words to be “impeachable”. But his defense of Trump was not what caught everyone’s attention the most. 

McClintock, who serves as the U.S. Representative for California's 4th congressional district, was present wearing a face-mask that read: “This mask is as useless as our Governor”. McClintock is a Republican Party member while California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, is a member of the Democratic Party. 

This is not the first time the lawmaker has worn messaging along with his mask. On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that McClintock wore a mask that read, “This Mask Is USELESS,” when he was at the Capitol that day. This was supposedly because the House vote on Tuesday night on the resolution urging the invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump was also to include a debate to impose a fine system for members who don’t comply with a mask requirement on the House floor. The system would include a $500 fine for the first offense and a $2,500 fine for the second offense, with fines deducted from the lawmaker’s pay.

On Twitter, many found McClintock’s mask reprehensible. People called him “petty and unprofessional”, among other things. One Twitter user said, “And here's Tom McClintock, wearing a mask that promotes the idea that masks are useless... Several hundred thousand dead Americans would probably have a different opinion Tom, if they weren't dead.”

McClintock, during his time on the floor, defended Trump’s words at the rally that turned violent under “Freedom of speech”. Talking about when Trump had said that Republican voters would "never forget" GOP lawmakers who fail to embrace his baseless effort to contest President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory, McClintock shrugged it off with a “So what?” adding that this was just politics. 

On January 10, McClintock joined other like-minded colleagues to urge a stop to any impeachment proceedings. “This impeachment would undermine your priority of unifying Americans,” he said in a letter to President-elect Joe Biden. McClintock was one of 126 Republicans who backed the ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit last year seeking to overturn election results, supporting Trump’s efforts to contest swing states he lost to Biden.

In the deadly insurrection on January 6 -- which many including Republican party members have called a coup attempt -- a Capitol Police officer who was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher died. Among the dead was also a rioter who was shot by a police officer. Three others died as a result of “medical emergencies” on the Capitol grounds, according to the authorities. According to the Capitol Police, more than 50 officers from the department and Metropolitan Police Department sustained injuries, while several of them were "hospitalized with serious injuries." The rioters vandalized many parts of the building. They also engaged in looting.