Trump says he'll wear mask when he visits military hospital but mocks Joe Biden for wearing one during rally
Donald Trump revealed he will be wearing a mask during an upcoming visit to Walter Reed hospital to meet with staff and injured soldiers and said he was doing so because it was appropriate in "certain conditions" such as this one. The president has repeatedly shirked the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) guidelines advising people in the country to wear a mask because it was effective in slowing the transmission of the coronavirus and mocked his political rivals for doing so.
But he appears to have changed his stance, at least temporarily, after White House spokesman Judd Deere announced he is "expected to travel to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Saturday to visit brave combat wounded service members and their families as well as health care staff who have been caring for Covid-19 patients during the pandemic."
Speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News on Thursday, July 9, Trump said he was okay with wearing a mask in public when it came to visiting a hospital. "I think it’s fine to wear a mask out if it makes you feel comfortable," he said.
"I’m going to Walter Reed to see some of our great soldiers who have been injured," he continued. "Badly injured. And also see some of our COVID workers, people who have done such a great job," Trump said. "And I expect to be wearing a mask when I go into Walter Reed. You’re in a hospital so I think it’s a very appropriate thing. I have no problem with a mask. If I'm with soldiers, people that -- you know, I don't want to spread anything."
Trump then went on to mock presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for the social distancing measures he had put into place at a campaign event he held in Pennsylvania the same day. He questioned the logic of wearing a mask on stage when no one else was nearby.
"He walks onto the stage wearing this massive mask," Trump said. "There’s nobody on the stage ... I think it makes him feel good, frankly, if you want to know the truth. And I guess that’s OK. But when there’s nobody around you don’t really have to do it."
Trump had admitted in May that he did not wear a face mask while touring a Michigan Ford plant because he wanted to spite journalists. During a visit to the Ford Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, which has been one of the facilities repurposed to make ventilators and PPE amid the coronavirus pandemic under the Defense Production Act, the president did not wear a mask despite there being strict rules that all employees must have one.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel had urged him to follow the facility's protocol and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's executive orders to have face protection as well, but it had little effect. Explaining his decision to flaunt the rules, Trump, surrounded by Ford executives who were all wearing face masks, said, "I had one on before. I wore one in the back area but I didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it. In this area, it's not necessary here, everybody's been tested and I've been tested. In fact, I was tested this morning, so it's not necessary."