Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) picked an interesting place to self-quarantine himself during a coronavirus scare: a Walmart parking lot.
The congressman had announced on Monday that he was voluntarily isolating himself after learning that he’d come in contact at last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference with someone who later tested positive for the coronavirus.
On Tuesday, Gaetz told the Pensacola News Journal exactly where one part of the self-quarantine had taken place. “I couldn’t stay in a hotel,” he said of his drive from Washington, D.C., back home to Florida. “I slept in a Walmart parking lot somewhere off [Interstate] 85.”
Gaetz will spend the remainder of his self-quarantine in Okaloosa County, but presumedly in more comfortable accommodations.
He’s not the only Republican politician quarantining himself: GOP Reps. Doug Collins (Ga.) and Mark Meadows (N.C.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) are also keeping themselves away from others.
Ironically, Gaetz learned that he had been exposed to the coronavirus just days after he mocked concerns about the outbreak by wearing a gas mask on the House floor and then found out that an infected man from his district had died.
On Tuesday, the congressman insisted to the News Journal that the mask “wasn’t making light of the situation.” He added: “I only wish I had worn the gas mask at CPAC.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Gaetz tweeted that he had tested negative for COVID-19 but would remain in quarantine until Thursday afternoon “in an abundance of caution.”