Biden bites back over president’s mask mockery
Joe Biden has said wearing a mask in public to combat the spread of the coronavirus is a sign of leadership and called President Donald Trump a ‘‘fool’’ who was ‘‘stoking deaths’’ for suggesting otherwise.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s comments came a day after he wore a black face mask while making his first public appearance in more than two months. Biden has remained at his Delaware home amid a pandemic that has frozen the presidential campaign, but he marked Memorial Day by laying a wreath at a nearby veterans’ memorial with his wife, Jill.
Trump later retweeted a post that appeared to make fun of a photo of Biden in his mask, though he later said he didn’t mean to be critical. In an interview with CNN, Biden responded, ‘‘He’s a fool, an absolute fool, to talk that way.’’
‘‘He’s supposed to lead by example,’’ Biden said. The former vice-president also noted that nearly 100,000 Americans have been killed by the virus and suggested that as many as half of those deaths would have been avoidable but for Trump’s ‘‘lack of attention and ego’’.
Federal officials have recommended that people cover their noses and mouths in public when other measures, such as social distancing of at least 1.8 metres, are not possible. But the issue has become increasingly politically charged, with Trump refusing to wear a mask and polls finding that conservative Americans are more likely to forgo them as well.
Biden didn’t wear a mask during the CNN interview, which was conducted outside his house, but he sat 12ft (3.6m) from the reporter.
‘‘It’s just absolutely this macho stuff,’’ Biden said of Trump bristling at wearing a mask in public, a practice the former vicepresident called being ‘‘falsely masculine’’. ‘‘It’s cost people’s lives.’’
Biden added that Trump was politicising the issue and ‘‘it’s stoking deaths. That’s not going to increase the likelihood that people are going to be better off’’.
After Biden wore the mask on Memorial Day, Trump retweeted a post by a political commentator that featured an image of a masked Biden over the comment, ‘‘This might help explain why Trump doesn’t like to wear a mask in public.’’ Asked about that during a subsequent event in the White House Rose Garden, the president responded, ‘‘Biden can wear a mask.’’
‘‘But he was standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions, perfect weather,’’ Trump said. ‘‘They’re inside, they don’t wear masks and so I thought it was very unusual that he had one on.
‘‘But I thought that was fine. I wasn’t criticising him at all. Why would I ever do a thing like that?’’
Trump then asked the reporter who was following up with a second question to remove the mask he was wearing, complaining he couldn’t hear him. When the reporter instead said he would speak louder, the president replied: ‘‘Oh, OK, ’cause you want to be politically correct.’’
Federal guidance does not recommend that people wear masks when at home. Still, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany used the same line of argument this week. She noted that Biden has forgone a mask while appearing for frequent online events from his home, as he did during a virtual fundraiser.
‘‘It is a bit peculiar,’’ McEnany said. ‘‘That in his basement, right next to his wife, he’s not wearing a mask. But he’s wearing one outdoors when he’s socially distant. So I think that there was a discrepancy there.’’
For his part, Biden changed his Twitter profile picture to one of him in the black face covering, and tweeted: ‘‘Wear a mask.’’ – AP