Rep. Louie Gohmert appeared to lose a tooth during the middle of a press conference on Tuesday.
The Republican representative from Texas was voicing his opposition to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which would rename several military bases and other government property named after Confederate leaders. The NDAA also includes bonuses for service members. Trump has threatened to veto the NDAA because it does not remove legal protections for social media sites like Twitter, which flagged tweets containing false or misleading information about the U.S. election.
As he spoke, he appeared to pause mid-sentence as his tooth fell out.
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Here’s a close up shared by political media outlet The Recount.
Gohmert publicly refused to wear a mask during this pandemic and tested positive for the coronavirus in July. According to the New York Times, people with pre-existing dental issues who had coronavirus have complained of losing their teeth, but there isn’t evidence-backed research to link the two yet. Upon finding out that he had COVID-19, Gohmert began taking hydroxychloroquine, a malaria treatment pushed by President Trump whose effectiveness in treating COVID-19 was debunked by the National Institutes of Health.
Gohmert was reportedly asymptomatic after his infection, and we can’t say for certain that his wayward tooth was related to his coronavirus diagnosis.
Still, Twitter ran with Gohmert’s loose tooth.
i don’t know how to say this without sounding sarcastic but there is truly nothing that i love more than watching our geriatric leaders and lawmakers decompose before our very eyes https://t.co/8ejtiJ48Vv
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) December 8, 2020
Gohmert also suggested, without any evidence, that he contracted COVID-19 from wearing a mask. It’s very unlikely that you can contract the coronavirus from wearing a mask, even if you do happen to touch it or adjust it. Please continue wearing masks.