Trump calls out Fox News host at Michigan campaign rally for wearing mask

"Are you wearing a mask?" the president asked Ingraham, minimizing its use as he has done all year. "I can’t recognize you. Is that a mask? I’ve never seen her in a mask. Look at you. Whoa! Whoa!"

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, REUTERS
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump throws a face mask from the stage during a campaign rally in Sanford, Florida, on October 12. (photo credit: JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS)
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump throws a face mask from the stage during a campaign rally in Sanford, Florida, on October 12.
(photo credit: JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS)
US President Donald Trump called out Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham for wearing a face mask at his campaign rally in Michigan on Friday, according to The Washington Times.
"Are you wearing a mask?" the president asked Ingraham, minimizing its use as he has done all year. "I can’t recognize you. Is that a mask? I’ve never seen her in a mask. Look at you. Whoa! Whoa!"
"She’s being very politically correct," he added.
Trump has spent much of the year downplaying the risks of the COVID-19 pandemic – even after his own positive diagnosis in September – which has infected 9.2 million of Americans, killed more than 230,000, and caused an economic downturn that has thrown millions out of work.
While in hospital, Trump, 74, wore a mask as he waved from the back seat of a black SUV that crawled in a caravan of vehicles in front of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington, while supporters waving Trump 2020 flags chanted: "USA! USA!"
The president was swiftly criticized for risking the health of support staff. Trump has been also criticized for a slow response to the pandemic as he repeatedly soft-pedaled the deadliness of the disease.
Before falling ill, he had continued to hold mass rallies with little social distancing; the virus has torn through the White House and Trump allies for days.
Less than two hours after Trump returned to the White House after three days in hospital being treated for coronavirus, challenger Joe Biden criticized the president anew for downplaying the seriousness of the virus.
"I would hope that the president, having gone through what he went through – and I'm glad he seems to be coming along pretty well – would communicate the right lesson to the American people: Masks matter," Biden said at an NBC News town hall from Miami, Florida.
But in a video released shortly after leaving hospital, Trump urged Americans to "get out there" and not to be afraid of the virus. Trump left hospital wearing a mask but took it off to enter the White House.
"I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it. This was a blessing in disguise," Trump said, adding that his use of the medication from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc had allowed him to experience first-hand how effective it could be.
"I want to get for you what I got. And I'm going to make it free," Trump said, at one point calling the unapproved medicine a "cure."