'Falsely masculine': Biden hits Trump over face masks as president calls them 'politically correct'

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump called wearing a face mask "politically correct" on Tuesday, while former vice president Joe Biden called Trump "a fool" for demeaning them, highlighting the politicization that has emerged around face masks during the coronavirus pandemic.  

On Tuesday, during a news conference in the Rose Garden, Trump asked a reporter, "Can you take it off, because I cannot hear you," referencing the face mask.

"I'll just speak louder, sir," the reporter responded.

"Ok, you want to be politically correct. Go ahead," Trump replied. The reporter refused to take the mask off. 

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Trump, who has tested negative for COVID-19 numerous times, has received criticism for not wearing a mask when in public settings.

Last week, Ford executives encouraged Trump to don a face mask during his visit to one of its factories, but he said he chose not to wear it near photographers because he "didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it."

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However, Trump denied mocking Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, for wearing a mask in public on a Memorial Day, even though he retweeted a post ridiculing Biden wearing dark aviator sunglasses and a black mask, which mostly concealed his face. 

Trump did not wear a mask on Memorial Day.

"Joe Biden can wear a mask, but he was standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions, perfect weather. . . . And so I thought it was very unusual that he had one on," Trump said. 

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During Biden's first in-person interview since the coronavirus pandemic on CNN, Biden criticized Trump's rhetoric surrounding masks, saying "every leading doc in the world is saying we should wear a mask when you're in a crowd."

He continued that Trump is "a fool, an absolute fool to be talking that way," and that his commentary is "macho stuff."

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"[I]t costs people's lives. It's costing people's lives," Biden continued, saying this is "stoking deaths."

Wearing a mask "projects leadership. Presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine," Biden concluded.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden calls Trump 'falsely masculine' for demeaning face masks