US: Republican lawmaker apologizes for cursing at Democrat over masks

A senior Republican lawmaker apologized late Tuesday for using an expletive when Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty asked him to put his mask on while in the Capitol.

The confrontation was just the latest dust-up in the House over mask-wearing, which many Republicans have refused to do.

Earlier Tuesday, Beatty, D-Ohio, ran into Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., outside her congressional office. Rogers, who has served in Congress since 1981, was maskless when they entered an elevator.

Beatty asked him to put on his mask and Rogers begrudgingly agreed, she said in an interview with The Associated Press shortly after it happened.

Rogers proceeded to take his mask off when they got off the elevator and the two crossed paths again upon entering a train in the Capitol complex. That is when the interaction became hostile.

Beatty once again asked Rogers to put his mask back on.

“He poked me in the middle of my back and said, ‘Get on the train,’” she said. “And I said, ‘Don’t you ever touch me.’”

According to Beatty, Rogers replied, “Kiss my a—.”

In a video obtained by The AP, Beatty can be heard asking Rogers for an apology on the train.

“I hate to think if it had been reversed and a man of color ... they would have ushered him off the floor,” Beatty said.

Beatty is Black and Rogers is white.

In a statement shortly after the incident, Rogers said he met with Beatty and apologized.