- Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio called out Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska for not wearing a face mask on the Senate floor on Monday.
- Sullivan responded that he didn't need "instruction" from Brown on when to wear a mask.
- Watch footage of the exchange below.
- Brown and Sullivan's argument mirrors the debate many liberals and conservatives have had about mask wearing throughout the pandemic.
- A June Pew study found that a majority of Democrats favor wearing face masks in public most of the time, while a little more than a quarter of Republicans do.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The face mask debate found its way to the Senate floor on Monday when Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio called out Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska for not wearing a face covering while presiding over a session about Federal Reserve nominee Judith Shelton.
Before speaking about Shelton, Brown asked Sullivan "to please wear a mask."
Sullivan responded by saying he doesn't wear a mask while he's speaking, "like most senators."
"I don't need your instruction," Sullivan added.
Brown used this as a jumping off point to criticize the Republican Party at large.
"I know you don't need my instruction, but there clearly isn't much interest in this body in public health," Brown said.
"We have a president who hasn't shown up at the coronavirus task force meeting in months, we have a majority leader that calls us back here to vote on an unqualified nominee, and at the same time to vote after judge after judge after judge, exposing all the people who can't say anything ... and the majority leader just doesn't seem to care," he added, referring to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Brown and Sullivan's argument mirrors the debate many liberals and conservatives have had about face masks throughout the pandemic.
A June survey by the Pew Research Center found that 63% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning respondents felt that face masks should be worn in public at least most of the time, compared to just 29% of Republicans and Republican-leaning respondents.
According to NPR, five members of the Senate have tested positive for the coronavirus, or are presumed to have gotten the virus, since the beginning of the pandemic. All five are Republicans.
Two of those senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, tested positive for the virus after attending Justice Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court nomination event at the White House in late September, where face masks and social distancing were flouted.
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