Fox News anchor Chris Wallace questioned Trump campaign surrogate Lara Trump about the first family’s decision not to wear masks at the first presidential debate.
On this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” Wallace said, “I’ve got to ask you, because you were there, about another event, the first debate 12 years ago in Cleveland. The Cleveland Clinic’s rules were very clear. Everyone in the audience had to wear a mask, but after the first family came in with masks, you all took them off. Did you think, Lara, that the rules that applied to everybody else in that hall didn’t apply to you?”
Trump said, “Well, of course, we didn’t think that. First of all, I’ll say that everyone in there, Chris, was tested and tested negative for COVID, at least in our family before we even got on the plane to head out to Cleveland. And we walked in with the mask on. We sat down, all of the seats were socially distanced, an effort to actually say this many times. I want to be very clear, never one time did anyone from Cleveland Clinic, up and ask a member of our family to put a mask on, so that is totally false. The notion has been out there that is not true. We were respectful to people around us coming in but wanted to do that, to walk in with the masks on. We sat down, didn’t move from the seats until the very end when it was all over, and we felt like we were being safe. Those of the same guidelines applied to restaurants, the same guidelines apply to many outlets across America, and the fact that we had tested negative, Chris, we followed the rules as we thought that they were given to us.”
Wallace said, “Everybody in that hall had tested negative. And the fact is, the rules were everybody except for the president, the vice president and I were supposed to wear masks and it was the pool report — I’m not just making this up — the pool report says a member of the Cleveland Clinic — in fact, there’s video that exists — coming up to someone in the presidential party and saying would you like masks, and they were waved away.”
Trump said, “Well, they didn’t ask any member of our family.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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