Mayor Bowser flouts own mask order and shoots the messenger Mayor Muriel Bowser of the District of Columbia officiated at a rooftop wedding and attended the reception indoors, just days after she had reinstituted a citywide mask mandate to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus delta variant. The mayor's mask order applies in most indoor settings with limited exceptions, including in "restaurants and bars (when not eating or drinking)." But she apparently didn't get the message. A commentary writer for the Washington Examiner got a tip that Bowser (D) would be at the nuptials, went to check it out and wrote a column about the mayor violating her own executive order, backed up by a 25-second video from the scene of the dine. When the Examiner article appeared, Bowser responded by saying that "they took a picture of me where dinner and drinks were served." (No one is seen eating or drinking in the video.) She also falsely accused the writer, Tiana Lowe, of encouraging her readers not to get vaccinated. (Lowe is pro-vaccine.) Isn't it ironic? Like rain on a wedding day, Bowser earned Four Pinocchios. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. Ron DeSantis' claim that migrants with covid coming in droves Florida appears to be in the grip of the delta variant as covid-19 hospitalizations keep breaking records. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a potential presidential candidate in 2024, has insisted he's handled the crisis well despite fighting against vaccine mandates and barring mask requirements for students at school. His defense? Blame Democrats and migrants. Attempts to cross the border are surging this summer, but the Florida governor has very little to buttress this claim. "Joe Biden has the nerve to tell me to get out of the way on COVID while he lets COVID-infected migrants pour over our southern border by the hundreds of thousands," DeSantis said. "No elected official is doing more to enable the transmission of COVID in America than Joe Biden with his open borders policies." The evidence in the news this week for Republicans making similar claims comes from McAllen, Tex. The city said that since mid-February, there have been over 7,000 confirmed positive coronavirus cases among its admitted migrants, including more than 1,500 new cases in a recent seven-day period. However, the covid-positivity rate for these migrants was lower than the rate for McAllen's home county of Hidalgo in the same period, suggesting that the virus is spreading more among people living on the U.S. side of the border in this area than among migrants. Moreover, according to Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which provides shelter for migrants who have recently crossed into McAllen, those who test positive for the virus are immediately isolated (along with family members who might have been exposed but test negative). They are not released until they test negative, so they have little interaction with the local community. DeSantis earned Three Pinocchios. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP, @rizzoTK, @AdriUsero) or Facebook. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. | 
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