WATCH: Trump Mocks Reuters’ Jeff Mason for Wearing a Mask in Oval Office Packed With Maskless WH Officials
Just weeks after a coronavirus outbreak at the White House, President Donald Trump mocked a member of the press corps for adhering to safety guidelines flouted by numerous members of his administration.
During a Friday afternoon Oval Office pool spray announcing a U.S.-brokered normalization deal between Israel and Sudan, Trump chided Reuters’ Jeff Mason for taking safety precautions. Mason was trying to direct a question to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was participating via conference call. Trump relayed the query – citing Mason wearing a mask as the reason Netanyahu could not hear the question.
“This is Jeff Mason,” Trump told Netanyahu. “He’s got a mask on that’s the largest mask I think I’ve ever seen. So I don’t know if you can hear him.”
The line drew laughter from Trump officials and others in the room — many of whom were not wearing masks. According to the White House pool report, there were 40-50 people in the Oval Office altogether.
In call with Israel’s Netanyahu, @realDonaldTrump says: do you think Sleepy Joe could have made this deal, Bibi? pic.twitter.com/pmCLou4h0Y
— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) October 23, 2020
Trump, on multiple occasions, has called out Mason for wearing a mask. The president’s mockery comes less than one month after the White House event widely deemed by experts to be a coronavirus superspreader — with the president and numerous others who attended testing positive in subsequent days. It also comes just as the U.S. reported more than 71,000 Covid-19 cases on Thursday, according to data from Johns Hopkins — a number approaching a single day high for the nation.
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