Rep. Joyce Beatty asked Rep. Harold Rogers to put on a mask. She says he insulted her instead.

Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) has apologized for insulting Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) after she asked him Tuesday to put on a face mask before boarding the U.S. Capitol's subway system.

"Today, while heading to the House floor for votes, I respectfully asked my colleague @RepHalRogers to put on a mask while boarding the train," Beatty tweeted. "He then poked my back, demanding I get on the train."

"When I asked him not to touch me, he responded, ‘kiss my a--,' " she added.

Beatty, 71, said the exchange was "the kind of disrespect we have been fighting for years," and indicative of the wider problem of Republicans legislators disregarding health and safety mandates put in place in Congress at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Beatty publicly called on Rogers to apologize.

"When you are ready to grow up and apologize for your behavior, you know where to find me," she tweeted.

In a statement Tuesday evening, Rogers, 84, said he had met with Beatty to personally apologize.

"My words were not acceptable and I expressed my regret to her, first and foremost," Rogers said.

Recounting the incident on CNN's "New Day" on Wednesday morning, Beatty noted there was a sign that said people needed to wear a face mask to board the train.

"It was insulting," Beatty told CNN. "It angered me that he would have the nerve to poke me in my back. That was bad enough."

But his cursing her after she asked him not to touch her was the last straw, she added.

"With that, I told him I would not be disrespected, that I was a colleague of his and that I was a Black woman," Beatty said. "I was not going to be bullied by him. I actually told him he picked the wrong woman today because I was not going to be bullied standing up for something I thought was right."

Beatty also said that she went to House Democratic leaders and the House sergeant-at-arms to demand an apology from Rogers. After they spoke with Beatty and House GOP leadership, Rogers approached Beatty on the House floor to apologize.

"Mind you, without a mask on," Beatty said. "As he reached out to touch my arm, I told him ‘Don't touch me' and moved back, because he didn't have a mask on. With that, he mumbled some words, and I told leadership that wasn't acceptable. I wanted a public apology."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters Wednesday that the House Republican leadership should be dealing with the comments made by Rogers. She added: "If somebody insults you and it's public knowledge, you have to apologize in a very public way as well."

Several GOP lawmakers have outright refused to wear face coverings in Congress, incurring hefty fines as they do so. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andrew S. Clyde of Georgia have together amassed more than $100,000 in fines for continuing to defy the mask mandate on the House floor.

Last year, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said she was moving her office at the U.S. Capitol complex away from Greene's for safety reasons, after claiming that Greene accosted her without a mask.

"Out of concern for the health of my staff, other members of Congress, and their congressional staff, I repeatedly called out to her to put on a mask," Bush said. "Taylor Greene and her staff responded by berating me, with one staffer yelling, ‘Stop inciting violence with Black Lives Matter.' "

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus gathered Tuesday evening to condemn the incident between Beatty and Rogers and called on Rogers to publicly apologize as well.

"Today what we saw was unacceptable," said Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) "This was harassment of a woman, a Black woman and a woman in leadership because he put his hands on her. He told her to kiss his part of his body. And I can tell you, being the little Black girl from the east side of Detroit, I would not take that standing or sitting, and I'm not going to take it standing or sitting for one of our own to be disrespected."

House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) said he knew that wearing masks could be uncomfortable at times but that it did not give anyone an excuse to insult or assault another member of Congress. He also reminded lawmakers to be mindful that their behavior should set an example for people across the country.

Others cited the incident as yet another example of the erosion of civility in Congress.

"We should be applauding [Beatty] for trying to protect everybody's health," Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said. "We understand what frustration there is around a lot of issues. But in no way should any colleague go beyond the pale by doing what was done today. … The behavior and the words today were indescribably, unbelievably horrible."

This article was originally published in The Washington Post on February 8, 2022.