Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) is responding to a tweet President Donald Trump shared that was widely perceived as a slight against the vice president for wearing a mask.
“He’s a fool,” Biden said during an interview on CNN on Tuesday. “An absolute fool to talk that way.”
He continued, “This macho stuff, for a guy — I shouldn’t get going, but it just, it costs people’s lives. It’s costing people’s lives.”
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When asked if wearing a mask projects strength or weakness, Biden responded, “Leadership. What it presents and projects is Leadership.”
“Presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine,” he added.
Biden ventured out on Monday to lay a wreath at a veterans memorial in Delaware for the first time in weeks, as IJR reported. While he was at the memorial, he wore a face covering, in line with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Some conservative commentators, including Fox News’ Brit Hume, took to Twitter to mock the image of Biden wearing a mask. Trump shared Hume’s tweet.
During a press conference on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked about Trump’s decision to share Hume’s tweet. She said, “It is a bit peculiar though 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 distanced.”
However, she denied that Trump was trying to mock Biden for wearing a mask.