Kevin McCarthy has a new conspiracy theory about the recent guidance on masks

Capitol physician Brian Monahan, in response to the recent COVID-19 surge, is reinstituting a mask mandate for the U.S. House of Representatives — and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is bitterly opposed to it.

On Tuesday night, the California Republican tweeted that "liberals" have a sinister ulterior motive for this mandate:

Of course, Democrats and liberals do not want to "live in a perpetual pandemic state." That's why they have been enthusiastically getting vaccinated and urging others to get vaccinated. But the refusal of some, including large segments of the conservative population, to get vaccinated has contributed to the recent increase in cases that has prompted some experts and officials to advocate returning to some mitigation methods.

Twitter has been full of negative reactions to McCarthy's tweet. Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, who has often been described as a "Never Trump conservative" but now rejects being called conservative, accused McCarthy of promoting "dangerous" behavior:

Vox's Aaron Rupar compared McCarthy's tweet to the far-right conspiracy theories of Infowars' Alex Jones:

Former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa posted:

When reporters, on Wednesday, asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to weigh in on McCarthy's opposition to bringing back the mask mandate for House members, she told them she would follow Monahan's guidance and said of McCarthy, "He's such a moron." Twitter user David Weissman agreed with Pelosi's description of McCarthy, telling the House minority leader:

Elizabeth C. McLaughlin, founder of the Gaia Project for Women's Leadership, tweeted: