During the COVID lockdowns, protesters against the lockdowns were arrested, in violation of the Bill of Rights, churches and synagogues were closed, funerals and weddings were denounced as selfish, until suddenly, the Black Lives Matter riots took off and protesting in groups of thousands became a good thing because it was all very emotional and historic.

The excuse still works.

 White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday defended Kamala Harris for not wearing a face mask yet again, this time in a video posted by the White House of the vice president going bare-faced indoors.

Harris was deemed a close contact to covid last week after her communications director, Jamal Simmons, tested positive. 

Psaki repeated her excuse from last week that it was an ’emotion day’ for Harris, the nation’s first black vice president, to see the first black woman confirmed to the high court. 

‘It was an emotional day. It was a historic day. And there were moments when she was not wearing a mask inside, including in a photo but she was wearing it 99.9% of the time,’ Psaki said at her White House press briefing.

Like Newsom and Garcetti. Any number of politicians have since got caught breaking their own rules, but it’s striking for Psaki to trot out the same old rationale for the BLM riots.

People who are feeling strong social justice emotions over an identity politics event don’t have to wear masks.

At least this was a mostly peaceful event.