GOP leaders are increasingly embracing the use of masks as coronavirus cases rise sharply across the country, even as President Trump refuses to wear one and attends rallies and events where they are optional.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, opened a hearing on Tuesday by all but pleading for Trump to wear a mask, arguing it would depoliticize the issue.
“Unfortunately this simple lifesaving practice has become part of a political debate that says: If you’re for Trump, you don’t wear a mask. If you’re against Trump, you do,” Alexander said. “That is why I have suggested the president should occasionally wear a mask even though there are not many occasions when it is necessary for him to do so.”
Alexander, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, noted that Trump has “millions of admirers.”
“They would follow his lead. It would help end this political debate. The stakes are too high for it to continue,” he said.
Alexander is far from alone. Other top GOP lawmakers imploring people to wear masks, if not the president directly, include Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and House GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (Wyo.).
“For the Fourth of July, we could all show our patriotism with a red, white, and blue mask going out there and show some strength,” McCarthy said during an interview Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.”
The shift is especially marked in the Senate, where the GOP majority is increasingly in play amid voters’ dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the pandemic and a suddenly weak economy.
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NEW: GOP-Trump fractures on masks open up https://t.co/VaTqU0Dj51 pic.twitter.com/a2o84GrW8i
— The Hill (@thehill) June 30, 2020
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