Fox News contributor says Biden wearing required mask at Memorial Day ceremony was “virtue-signaling”
Raymond Arroyo ridicules Biden's decision: “Who is he protecting, by the way, on Memorial Day? The slab at the memorial?”
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From the May 26, 2020, edition of Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): It's time for our “Seen and Unseen” segment, where we reveal the stories behind the headlines. Joining us now with all the details, Raymond Arroyo, Fox News contributor. Raymond, now, you think Memorial Day may have given us an insight into the campaign to come. How so?
RAYMOND ARROYO (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Well, Laura, if you look closely at what happened during those dueling Memorial Day ceremonies — voters look at this. They're looking for signs, they're looking for impressions of how they should vote.
Biden emerged from his basement for the first time in two months to lay a wreath at a war memorial near his home in Delaware. It was a grim look: He wore a black mask, the dark Ray Bans. Even his gait was tentative. He projected an image of trepidation, even fear.
Trump, on the other hand, appeared at Fort McHenry. He's surrounded by the Drum and Fife Corps, flags are waving behind him, no mask. He seemed to be aligning himself, visually at least, with that American spirit of defiance in the face of adversity. It even had a touch of the revolutionary spirit about it, Laura. And I think voters are picking up on this. Whether they recognize it or not, it's there. They see it, they feel it.
INGRAHAM: Yeah, I don't think America is — I don't think they want masks long term, even if they — short term, they will do the mask, because they think it's safe. I think they're worried that this is going to become the new normal forever —
ARROYO: The normal, yeah.
INGRAHAM: — which I think the blue state governors want. They need a visual to keep this narrative going, since the curve has long since been flattened. They need that visual to keep people scared, and the mask — for some, not saying it has no use — but for some, it keeps that visual front and center.
ARROYO: Well, whether it has use or not, Dr. Fauci a few months ago said it had very little use. But for Joe Biden, it's virtue-signaling. It's a way to set himself off from Trump. And in his first in-person interview in two months, he sat down 12 feet apart from CNN's Dana Bash and explained why he wore the mask on Memorial Day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE): I watched the president yesterday wearing no mask, you know, and some making fun of the fact that I wore a mask. The truth of the matter is that I think you're supposed to lead by example. And one of the things our governor has said, he wants to keep social distancing, stay-at-home has been the order until June 1.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Now, Laura, the governor of Delaware is now setting the course for Joe Biden's national campaign? I mean, this is bizarre, really. Who is he protecting, by the way, on Memorial Day? The slab at the memorial? I don't know who he was protecting. His wife, he's been in quarantine with for months? It was all very bizarre. But it — I think it's political —
INGRAHAM: Oh, it's all political.
ARROYO: There's a political piece to this.
INGRAHAM: Yeah, and now we're reading stuff about how you can damage yourself by wearing a mask —
ARROYO: Right.
INGRAHAM — because then you're breathing back, you know, potentially microbes —
ARROYO: The viral load.
INGRAHAM: You know, not everybody changes their mask every day or cleans it. They're too busy, they don't —I mean, so it's — you know we're going to read an article a month from now about how unhygienic masks are now super-spreaders of the virus. I mean, that's coming.