Trump Keeps Lying About Masks
Politics
President Trump visited the Ford plant in Michigan on Thursday, and when he wasn’t extolling the greatness of Henry Ford—a reviled racist and anti-semite—he was busy showing off his disregard of basic covid-19 safety by refusing to wear a mask.
CNN reports that Trump brought a navy blue face mask with the presidential seal on it with him to the Ford plant, but didn’t put it on in front of the cameras, and didn’t wear it while touring the factory either.
“I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,” Trump said. Someone managed to snap a pic and sent it to TMZ anyway. But more alarming was the fact that Trump told reporters that he was informed that wearing a mask “wasn’t necessary.”
Ford sources told CBS News that no one said that. In fact, they were surprised by Trump’s decision to forgo a mask.
From CBS:
When Mr. Trump took off the mask, the chairman felt compelled to not object, the sources said. When a reporter asked if he was ok with the president not wearing a mask, Ford replied, “It’s his choice.”
Ford’s policy is that everyone wear personal protective equipment on the premises, and Ford said it informed the White House of that policy ahead of Mr. Trump’s visit.
Detroit News reports that Trump only wore a mask during a private viewing of three Ford GTs.
Suffice to say, the United Auto Workers are pissed!
Despite some in the president’s entourage not following health and safety protocols in the plant today, we want to make it clear that the CDC guidelines have not changed and it is vitally important that our members continue to follow the protocols that have been put in place to safeguard them, their families and their communities.
This deadly virus has taken the lives of 25 of our UAW members already and thousands of Americans. These protocols are literally a matter of life and death, and that is why the UAW has been working tirelessly with the companies to ensure that everything that can be done to keep our members and our communities safe.”
It’s like Trump is trying to piss off as many people in the state of Michigan—a crucial swing state!—as possible.
Zoom moms are, apparently, the new swing vote Democrats and Republicans have their eyes on.
Here’s Axios’s description of this important demographic:
She can’t be a soccer mom because soccer’s canceled. She’s not a conventional security mom since America’s biggest threat is now measured in microns. In an election year defined by the coronavirus, the new voter to watch is the Zoom mom.
In other words, this is just the typical suburban (white) woman vote, repackaged for the covid-19 era. Axios spoke to a Democratic pollster who said, “What campaigns will be looking to do is equip these Zoom moms to do more organizing, more persuasion, more voter registration and more communicating in their networks—in their book club, in their church club, in their moms’ Listserv.”
Just when you were getting Zoom fatigue from your friends, get ready to get Zoom fatigue from your Aunt Sally. Joy!
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- Virginia is decriminalizing marijuana. [CNN]
- Melania Trump speaks: