Tipsheet

Mask Mandate Rally Draws Crowds of Thousands to Washington, D.C.

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  January 24, 2022 10:00 AM

On Sunday, an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 people attended the Defeat the Mandates rally in Washington, D.C. to call for an event to vaccine mandates when it comes to the Wuhan coronavirus.

At around 12 noon, marchers traveled from the Washington Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial, where they heard from a myriad of speakers, including Dr. Robert Malone, a virologist and immunologist who has developed mRNA technology. Dr. Malone, as Madeline reported last month, was suspended permanently from Twitter. His full speech at Sunday's rally has been uploaded to Rumble. 

YouTube star and comedian JP Sears emceed the march.

The rally was attended by Sherry Walker and Danielle Runyan, co-founders of Airline Employees for Health Freedom (AE4HF), whose plight I have covered before. The two provided a joint statement to Townhall.

"Forced coercion is the theme from federal government to corporate America. We will no longer sit idly by while employers shred our Constitutional rights and civil liberties. This crisis of conscience, the choice between injecting one’s body and providing for one’s family, must end. Today was an awesome start to our week in DC fulfilling our organization’s mission," they said. 

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Those who signed up for the rally were emailed a list of information and instructions about the event, including multiple bullet points that stressed safety and peaceful protests.

  • See Something, Say Something! We have hired private security and they are working hand-in-hand with DC Metro police. Be aware of your surroundings. De-escalate conflict. Remain calm. Distance yourself from those that may try to instigate something. Get security or police involved when necessary. A few hundred DC firefighters are also planning to attend wearing their fire helmets.
  • We do not welcome extremist groups on any side that condone racism or bring violence of any kind to the thousands of Americans that will be marching peacefully. We encourage the unity of all people regardless of race, religious background, sexual orientation, or political party behind our mission. United we stand, in peace we march.

The website also issued a "Statement Denouncing Extremism and Disinformation" on Friday. 

Reaction from the mainstream media was predictable, with many trying to undermine the cause of the rally and what the marchers stood for. Multiple outlets also reported that police confirmed there were no arrests, yet some still tried to equate the marchers with violence. 

For instance, Joseph Choi at The Hill focused on the "far-right and pro-Trump memorabilia," as well as how "Some signs appeared to call for violence against others." As he also wrote:

The Metropolitan Police Department told The Hill there have been no arrests or police reports as a result of the gathering around the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial as of late Sunday afternoon. But some locals worried the crowd could devolve into chaos, with some recalling the recent anniversary of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol attack, which was preceded by a rally of pro-Trump supporters protesting the certification of the 2020 election, according to WUSA.  

The Washington Post thought it worthwhile to include this in their reporting:

Police reported no arrests or significant incidents. Law enforcement had a visible but not overwhelming presence on the Mall, with about 10 mounted officers lining the march route and U.S. Park Police vehicles parked nearby. Officers were also at the Lincoln Memorial, where fences had been erected to prevent people from walking up the steps. A Metro transit police officer paced the area around the exit of the Smithsonian station as march participants carrying signs passed barefaced in violation of the transit system’s mask mandate. 

Metro officials said they are investigating an alleged assault Saturday night aboard a Red Line train in the District. In a Reddit post, the victim reported being attacked for wearing a mask by a man without a face covering.

The report also suggests that they may have been hoping for the live stream to have been removed from social media:

Aaron Simpson, a spokesman for Facebook parent Meta, said that because the page is ostensibly opposed to vaccine mandates rather than vaccines it does not violate the platform’s policies on covid-19 and vaccine misinformation, which prohibit “content calling to action, advocating, or promoting that others not get the COVID-19 vaccine.”

However, some individual posts and comments that contain misinformation have been removed, he said.

“Voicing opposition to government mandates is not against Meta’s policies,” Simpson said. “What we don’t allow is content that promotes harmful false claims about the vaccines themselves and we remove those posts — including in this group.”

Neither report covered how a woman appeared to harass those present for the rally. 

Just over a week before, the first phase of Washington D.C.'s vaccine mandate had gone into place, with people being required to show they have received at least their first dose of the vaccine and photo ID to prove they are the vaccinated person. The second phase will begin on February 15, when patrons must show they have received two doses of the vaccine. 

Vaccine mandates have also come to other liberal cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago. 

The Biden administration has incessantly prioritized vaccines, with Jeff Crourere in his January 24 column for Townhall pointing out how this has come with the cost of neglecting to promote therapeutics or healthy lifestyles, for instance. 

A vaccine mandate for private companies with 100 or more employees was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month. A vaccine mandate for federal workers was also temporarily blocked by Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Madeline reported on Friday.