Headline Roundup • February 9th, 2022
Stacey Abrams Apologizes for Maskless Photo
Summary from the AllSides News Team
On Tuesday, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams apologized for posing maskless with elementary school children.
She told CNN that she got caught up in the "excitement" of reading to children in celebration of Black History Month. "Protecting our kids is the most important thing, and anything that can be perceived as undermining that is a mistake. And I apologize," Abrams said in the CNN interview. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky said this week that mask mandates are necessary "essentially everywhere in the country in public indoor settings."
Abrams received criticism from conservative critics who oppose mask mandates in schools and saw the photo as an example of hypocrisy from Democrats who support mask mandates. As Abrams and some Democratic politicians are criticized for purportedly ignoring coronavirus restrictions they implemented or supported, others are beginning to join Republicans in ending mask mandates and other pandemic restrictions.
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Stacey Abrams campaign
Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said Tuesday night that “excitement” prompted her to pose maskless for a photo last week with a group of elementary schoolchildren — a move that has generated a rash of mostly Republican criticism.
On CNN’s “OutFront,” Abrams explained that she was in the Decatur, Ga., elementary school classroom for a Black History Month reading event on Friday. She said she kept her mask on until she reached the lectern and took it off only because she was reading to students who were “listening remotely, as...

AP
Stacey Abrams apologized Tuesday for appearing maskless in several photos last week at a Georgia elementary school in violation of local mask mandates, two days after the Democratic candidate in Georgia’s governor race dismissed the Republican-led firestorm about the images as a “false political attack.”
During a Tuesday night appearance on CNN, Abrams said she was sorry for not wearing a mask in pictures that went viral over the weekend where she posed with masked students and children at a Decatur, Georgia school, breaking the city’s indoor mask mandate.
Abrams called the maskless photos...
Stacey Abrams apologized after receiving criticism for being photographed maskless while surrounded by school children wearing masks.
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Georgia told CNN on Tuesday she got caught up in the "excitement" of reading to children for an African American read-in day when she posed for the cameras.
"I took a picture, and that was a mistake. Protocols matter, and protecting our kids is the most important thing, and anything that could be perceived as undermining that is a mistake, and I apologize," Abrams said.
Abrams said she wore her mask prior to approaching a podium, where she...
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