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Rand Paul And Other Republicans Support DC Restaurant Defying COVID-19 Mandate

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Senator Rand Paul, along with some Republican friends, visited a Washington, D.C. restaurant Tuesday to help the company, which was closed for violating COVID-19 masking and vaccination mandates.

Just hours prior to the protest, the city issued a notice of shutdown to the restaurant.

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D.C. Shuts Down the Restaurant

Paul and sone of his staff members ate burgers at The Big Board restaurant, where the owners had been refusing to comply with the city’s local COVID mandates. 

 Washington, DC officials had already fined Big Board for not requiring staff to wear masks. It even lost its liquor license.

Just one hour before Paul arrived, the city’s health department put a closure notice on the business’s front door.

Co-Owner: ‘I just know that I’m doing the right thing’

Paul told the Washington Examiner regarding Big Board co-owner Eric Flannery, “It’s a big decision — civil resistance, civil disobedience — when you lose your livelihood. So I’m incredibly proud of him.”

Paul introduced legislation to prohibit Washington, D.C., from applying such mandates. 

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, fellow Kentuckian with Paul, was also at the restaurant for the protest and said that if more business owners would resist the mandates “it’d be unenforceable.”

 

“I would encourage more people to do it,” Massie said. “Each person, I think, needs to push back to the ability of their meansAnd not everybody can afford to lose their job over this.”

Owner Flannery said, with tears in his eyes as he addressed his staff and reporters, “When people asked me, ‘What are you going to get on the other side of this?’ I don’t know.”

“I just know that I’m doing the right thing,” Flannery added.

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“I decided that this bar was going to be what it is, which is a place where everybody is welcome,” Flannery said. “My servers, they are not less or people that need to be masked. They don’t carry disease. They always wash their hands. They’re clean. They follow the health guidance.”

Ronny Jackson, Victoria Spartz and Kevin Hern were also present at Big Board to support Tim Burchett.

Big Board patrons flocked to the bar for one final night on Tuesday. However, it is not clear what will happen next. Keep watching.