Fox News’ Brit Hume posted a photo of Joe Biden wearing a protecting mask Monday, comparing the presumptive Democratic nominee to President Donald Trump — who refuses to publicly wear one — and getting criticism in the process.
“This might help explain why Trump doesn’t like to wear a mask in public. Biden today,” tweeted the network’s senior political analyst below a photo of a masked Biden at a Delaware veterans’ memorial for Memorial Day.
Trump retweeted the sentiment.
When he was met with pushback — specifically the argument that Biden was wearing the mask to “protect others” as well as himself amid the coronavirus pandemic — Hume wrote, “Biden was visiting a cemetery with his wife. Both have been quarantined for weeks. So what others was protecting, pray tell?”
Ronald Klain, Biden’s chief of staff during the Obama administration and White House Ebola response coordinator from 2014-2015, criticized Hume for his tweets.
“A President takes measures to protect others. That’s what a mask does. That’s what a competent President would have done, months ago: on testing, on PPE, on social distancing. And many fewer Americans would be grieving today,” Klain wrote.
Others, like writer and Daily Beast editor-at-large Molly Jong-Fast, criticized Hume as well.
“It’s not about looking good, it’s about setting a good example,” she wrote, adding that “used to be something presidents did.”
Democratic commentator Brian Tyler Cohen added, “Is this not an attractive enough look for you Brit? Would a ventilator be better?”
Monday wasn’t the first time Biden’s mask-wearing and Trump’s refusal to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on masks were thrown into contrast. The former vice president did an interview with Stephen Colbert Thursday night and was wearing a face mask when he popped up on the screen. Trump had declined to wear one in front of the press earlier in the day when he visited a factory in Michigan amid speculation over whether he would publicly don a mask.
Trump ultimately appeared at the plant with no mask, claiming he wore one “in the back area” but removed it because he “didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it.”
This might help explain why Trump doesn’t like to wear a mask in public. Biden today. pic.twitter.com/9l1gw1ljBE
— Brit Hume (@brithume) May 25, 2020