Fox News host Sean Hannity—longtime advocate for President Donald Trump and his messaging—aired a responsible segment on mask-wearing last night, advising young partiers to wear a mask regardless of whether they are at high risk to contract coronavirus. As the Daily Beast reports, Hannity, one of the most loyal pro-Trump voices in conservative media, spoke to footage of Missouri partygoers over the holiday weekend.
“There’s no mask-wearing here that I see,” Hannity said of the clip, which showed a packed Lake of the Ozarks bar. “I see no social distancing. But if they get the virus and they’re in contact with older, more vulnerable Americans, that could be a disaster for others…If you can’t social distance, please wear the mask for your mom, dad, grandma, grandpa. My humble advice.”
Hannity’s “humble advice” comes as the president and others—including fellow Fox News commentator Brit Hume—have mocked presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden for wearing a mask. As my colleague Eric Lutz reported on Tuesday, Hume tweeted a photo of Biden in a dark face mask and his trademark aviator sunglasses, which he wore during his first public appearance in months to lay a wreath at War Memorial Plaza. “This might help explain why Trump doesn’t like to wear a mask in public,” Hume wrote, earning that coveted Trump retweet. “They’ll say this whole mask thing is settled science just like they do with climate change,” television host Laura Ingraham, also of Fox News, said last month of those who criticized Vice President Mike Pence for not wearing a mask. “Of course, it’s not and they know it.”
At a White House press briefing on Tuesday, Trump suggested that Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason was wearing a mask solely to make a statement, asking Mason to take his mask off so his question would be more audible. When Mason said he would simply speak louder, Trump mocked him. “Oh, OK, because you want to be politically correct,” he said. “No, sir, I just want to wear the mask,” Mason replied.
Later on Tuesday, Biden scorned Trump’s retweet, calling him “an absolute fool to talk that way” in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash. Biden added that he believes “you’re supposed to lead by example” and knocked Trump for his “macho” remarks. “Every leading doc in the world is saying you should wear a mask when you’re in a crowd, and especially when you know you’re going to be in a position where you’re going to inadvertently get closer than 12 feet to somebody. I know we’re 12 feet apart, I get that,” the vice president told Bash. “But it’s just absolutely—this macho stuff, for a guy…I shouldn’t get going. But it’s cost people lives. It’s costing people’s lives.”
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