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WASHINGTON. — President Donald Trump requested a White House reporter remove his mask when asking a question during a Monday news conference at the White House because he had trouble understanding him.
“You’re very muffled,” Trump told Reuters reporter Jeff Mason. Mason declined to remove the black mask, saying he would just speak louder.
“It’s better,” Trump said with an audible sigh before Mason asked about a recent story in The Atlantic magazine alleging Trump disparaged members of the US military who have been captured or killed.
The magazine reported last week Trump referred to the American war dead at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France as “losers” and “suckers” in 2018.
Trump has vehemently denied making the remarks regarding the soldiers and did so again in response to Mason’s question, calling it a “hoax.”
Later in the news conference, the president complimented another reporter who asked a question without a mask covering his mouth. “You sound so clear as opposed to everybody else, where they refuse,” he said.
Mason is a former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. The organisation requires reporters to wear masks during news conferences due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump, who was not wearing a mask during the outdoor news conference on the North Portico of the White House, has vacillated on the issue of mask wearing.
He has worn masks on a few occasions, most notably during a July 11 visit with ill troops at Walter Reed hospital. And on July 21 he urged all Americans to do so, saying he was “getting used” to the idea.
“We’re asking everybody that when you are not able to socially distance, wear a mask, get a mask,” Trump said then. “Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact, they’ll have an effect. We need everything we can get.” — US Today.
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