Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. , questions witnesses during a virtual Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing, Tuesday.

Toni L. Sandys / AP Photo

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) became the latest public figure to make a statement with his choice of face mask, taking the internet by storm Tuesday when he debuted a patterned bandana in a Capitol Hill hearing room.

Kaine, one of a handful of senators to appear in person during a contentious Senate Health Committee hearing, looked — to some — like a fast-draw desperado ready to make his debut on Westworld.

https://twitter.com/longwall26/status/1260220648816889857

A cowboy? A nod to the post-apocalyptic world it feels like we’re living in? You decide.

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The senator knows his way around a harmonica and John Donne’s work, probably.

https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/1260242408375271425

Fashion finds a way even in the most functional of accessories — face masks are no exception. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that people wear a mask when leaving their homes, and many states have followed suit, requiring face coverings in grocery stores and other businesses.

But the face mask has also become a political statement as some protesters have claimed they are un-American and as President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have refused to wear masks on public occasions.

Asked about the senator’s choice of face covering, a spokesperson pointed to Kaine’s tweet poking fun at fellow Virginia Sen. Mark Warner. Warner horrified Virginians — and probably the world — last month when he made what absolutely should not be called a tuna melt.

“Not a tuna melt, but it will have to do.”

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