Fox News contributor Brit Hume responded to a CNN segment criticizing a tweet he posted Monday poking fun at former Vice President Joe Biden for wearing a mask.
The tweet was shared by President Donald Trump, but widely criticized by those who feel that any criticism of mask wearing is a threat to public health.
This might help explain why Trump doesn’t like to wear a mask in public. Biden today. pic.twitter.com/9l1gw1ljBE
— Brit Hume (@brithume) May 25, 2020
Appearing on Tuesday night’s “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” Hume reacted to the clip played by anchor Martha MacCallum as an example of the “backlash” generated by his tweet.
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“Well, Biden like anybody else wearing a mask looked ridiculous in the mask that he had on, with his black sunglasses it seems to me made him look especially ridiculous,” Hume responded, pointing out that Biden was “outside at a war memorial, he is with his wife with whom he’s been quarantined,” and could not be “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,” he continued. “And if you look at the other video of the event, he stayed well out of 6-foot range from everyone he comes in contact with, and you really don’t get it by just simply passing someone or someone opens a door for you.”
MacCallum added that “no one ever talks about” the fact that the actual advice is to wear a face covering “if you can’t social distance when you are outside.”
The Fox News contributor lamented the “remarkable” divide between Trump supporters and non-Trump supporters on the mask issue because “there’s a lot of hard data” that the dire models “were wildly off base and exaggerated everything.”
“You could argue that but I don’t think it makes much of an example to wear a mask in a situation when all the data we have indicated that it’s not necessary,” Hume said, responding to MacCallum’s question about leading by example. “And on top of that it looks absurd.” (RELATED: Bystander Points Out Maskless MSNBC Cameraman During Segment About People Not Wearing Masks)
Hume explained that Trump’s motivation is likely “appearance,” but added later that “all the evidence we have suggests that the virus doesn’t transmit very effectively outdoors.”
“It doesn’t live very long in sunlight and the open air,” he said. “It doesn’t travel very far. It doesn’t do very well. So you combine outdoors, social distancing and the fact, in the case of Biden … you don’t have a formula for his being a transmitter and therefore you don’t have a case for his wearing a mask.”
Hume concluded that it “might be a good idea” for Trump to wear a mask indoors when there are people close by, but said that “he doesn’t need one” outdoors.