Despite the president currently being hospitalized for COVID-19, Trump senior campaign adviser Jason Miller continued to mock Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for regularly wearing face masks, claiming the former vice president uses masks as a “prop.”
Interviewing Miller on ABC’s This Week, anchor George Stephanopoulos brought up President Donald Trump ridiculing Biden for his mask-wearing during Tuesday’s presidential debate, wondering aloud if that has backfired on the president considering his own coronavirus diagnosis.
“Hasn't the cavalier approach to masks and social distancing at these rallies been a mistake?” Stephanopoulos asked. “Will it change going forward?”
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Miller, meanwhile, insisted that that campaign has been responsible while holding large rallies that feature no social distancing and little mask-wearing, claiming that they “take it seriously.”
“It's why we give everyone coming to rallies or events, we give them a mask,” he added. “We check their temperature.”
The campaign flack, in a typically Trumpian turn, then took aim at the former vice president.
“I would say that with regard to Joe Biden, I think too often he's used the mask as a prop,” he declared. “The mask is very important, but even if he's -- he could be 20, 30 feet away from the nearest person and still have the mask on. That's not going to change anything that's out there.”
“Also we've seen with—with Joe Biden, I mean, we can't all just stay in our basement for the rest of our lives,” Miller added. “We have to get out there and live our lives and take this on, develop the vaccine, develop more therapeutics, and defeat it.”
Stephanopoulos would go and press the Trump adviser on the president still holding a fundraising event on Thursday even though he was already aware that his close aide Hope Hicks had already tested positive for coronavirus at that time.
“I'd say that the news as we saw from the public reports, the news of when they saw about Hope Hicks, as soon as that happened then president trump was tested,” Miller said. “He did not get his test back until later on Thursday evening. you know, it is notable that anyone who comes to an event such as the fundraiser, there's a Bedminster, they are tested, they have their temperature taken.”
The ABC anchor pushed back, pointing out that other advisers and White House officials were told to stand back and not travel to the event, again wondering why Trump would go forward with the fundraiser while awaiting his test results, which goes against CDC guidelines. Miller, however, stated that he “can’t speak” to that since he isn’t part of White House operations.
The Trump campaign aide isn’t the only one in Trumpworld who continues to mock mask-wearing despite the virus wildly spreading through the White House, GOP, and campaign after a packed Rose Garden event. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), despite his own positive test result, criticized mask mandates while saying masks are “certainly not a cure-all.”
