Fox's Brit Hume defends Donald Trump’s refusal to wear a mask because “he doesn’t want to look funny”
Hume: “He’s obviously very, very concerned about his appearance”
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From the May 26, 2020, edition of Fox News' The Story with Martha MacCallum:
MARTHA MACCALLUM (HOST): What point were you trying to make with your tweet?
BRIT HUME: Well, Biden, like anybody else wearing a mask, looked ridiculous, and the mask that he had on with his black sunglasses, it seems to me, made him look especially ridiculous. And added to that is this, Martha -- he's outside at a war memorial. He is with his wife, with whom he's been quarantined for what, ten weeks, something like that? Nine weeks? He's not -- he's not a COVID carrier, so the idea that you are wearing a mask to protect someone else doesn't seem to apply here, especially the fact that it's outdoors where there is very little empirical data indicating that the virus spreads very easily outdoors. In addition to that, if you look at all the other video of the event, he stayed well out of 6-foot range from nearly everybody he comes in contact with, and you really don't get it by simply passing somebody. I mean, that's not -- or somebody opens a door for you, so -- I mean, he didn't really need to be wearing a mask.
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I don't think it makes much of an example to wear a mask in a situation where nearly all the data we have indicated that it's not necessary. And on top of that, it looks absurd. And of course, you know as vain as Donald Trump is, think of what he goes through every day to prepare himself to be seen.
You know, he goes through this whole ritual with his hair where he sprays it into submission and he's got it all combed up in a certain way so it covers his forehead. He's obviously very, very concerned about his appearance. A lot of people don't think he has very good taste, but this is the way he wants to look and he cares a lot about it, and doesn't like to look any other way.
And I think, you know, he put on that mask out at the plant -- what, out in Michigan or whatever it was the other day, and I don't think he liked the way it looked on him. And I think he looks -- when he looks at that picture of Joe Biden, he thinks Biden looks ridiculous, and he kind of does, and he doesn't want to look that way. And the fact -- the fact that he retweeted that tweet of mine, which I certainly didn't expect, suggests that he agrees with what I said.
This is why he won't wear a mask. He doesn't want to look funny.