Marjorie Taylor Greene responds to plan to put her and other anti-mask lawmakers in voting ‘isolation box’

Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday mocked a proposal to allow House members to vote without masks from a plexiglass box in the House gallery, suggesting any member who is concerned about Covid-19 should not be in office.

Speaking to Insider, Ms Greene said she would argue that members “may not be fit to do the job” if they feel threatened by the coronavirus that has killed more than 800,000 Americans.

“Maybe they need to consider that they are the ones in the risk group, and they should just go sit it out until they feel safe to come out,” she said.

The Georgia representative, who was recently banned from Twitter for spreading misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines, was responding to a proposal from Assistant Speaker of the House Katherine Clark, a Massachusetts Democrat, who in a Tuesday letter asked House Sergeant at Arms William Walker to require members who will not wear masks to cast votes from an “isolation box” in the gallery above the House floor.

The Plexiglas space was erected in January 2021 to allow a Democratic member who otherwise would have had to isolate after testing positive for Covid-19 to cast a vote for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the first day of the 117th Congress.

Although House rules already prohibit maskless entry into the House chamber and punish violations with fines – $500 for a first offense and $2,500 for subsequent violations – some Republicans have elected to have their salary docked rather than comply.

Ms Greene and another GOP anti-mask Georgia congressman, Representative Andrew Clyde, have racked up a combined $100,000 fines for violating the rule according to the House Ethics Committee.

In her letter to Mr Walker, Ms Clark noted that the fines “have proven insufficient” to deter violations and suggested the isolation box would be an appropriate remedy.

“This common-sense step will not only protect our dedicated House staff from Members who refuse to follow House rules, but it will also allow those members to continue to fulfill their constitutional duty to vote on matters before the House,” she wrote.