(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) President Joe Biden was slammed on conservative social media Wednesday after the signing of a contract between labor unions and shipping companies in West Coast ports, and pleaded to those in the audience not to tell his handlers he wasn’t wearing a mask.
“I’ve been tested again today, I’m clear across the board,” Biden jokingly said, entering the room, without a mask. “But they keep telling me because this has to be ten days or something, I’ve got to keep wearing it. But don’t tell them I didn’t have it on when I walked in,” Biden added, failing to mention the First Lady had COVID, and those exposed must wear a mask when indoors and around other people according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Earlier on Wednesday press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre deflected questions about the president not adhering to White House COVID protocols during Biden’s shameful and potentially dangerous behavior during Tuesday’s Medal of Honor ceremony honoring Army Capt. Larry Taylor. Biden removed his mask to deliver remarks and never put it back on, leaving in the middle of the event.
Jean-Pierre said Biden’s premature departure was to minimize contact with the hundreds of attendees in the room. And yet, Biden’s latest public appearance without a mask contradicted Jean-Pierre, who said Biden was “going to be masking in this 10-day period” by CDC recommendations.
The flippant attitude on Tuesday and Wednesday from Jean-Pierre and Biden’s overall aloofness regarding masking angered conservatives, who noted children were forced to mask up at schools because of the CDC’s mask recommendations.
“If only children in Montgomery County public schools also had the freedom to not wear a mask,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wrote in a social media post. “Whether it’s requiring a 437th booster or a mask mandate, leftists’ COVID policies are about control.”
Cruz was referring to Rosemary Hills Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland, a wealthy D.C. suburb, that announced it has reinstated a mask mandate for third graders after a few kids tested positive for the virus.
Conservative reporter Charlie Spiering joined the chorus on Twitter. “Now, it appeared Biden was a masked rebel after he spent months condemning Americans for failing their patriotic duty.”
Town Hall writer Phil Holloway criticized the president with a tweet that proclaimed, “The mask theater has reached ultra-clown levels,” and posted a quartet of clown emojis.
“It’s cute and funny until they are forcing this on everyday people, closing stores and ruining lives,” one conservative posted.
As Covid cases and hospitalizations reportedly increased in the U.S., and new variants of the virus emerged, mask mandates popped up in mostly blue cities across the nation, including California, Arizona, New York, Georgia, Alabama and recently in Maryland.
Amid the rise in COVID-19 cases, Newsweek reported that a few companies and organizations have enforced mask mandates. The list included Lionsgate and Kaiser Permanente in California, United Health Services in New York, Auburn Community Hospital in New York and Upstate Medical in Syracuse, New York.
