In Fox News Sunday Interview, Trump Tells Chris Wallace He’s a ‘Believer’ in Masks, But Won’t Mandate
President Donald Trump sat down with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace for an extensive and highly hyped interview airing tomorrow, and on the topic of mask mandates told Wallace, “I don’t believe in that.”
The interview is expected to be challenging, if not contentious, as Trump and Wallace have a challenging and contentious history. Wallace interviewed Trump back in November of 2018, and ever since the president has been prone to bash the Fox anchor as “unfair.”
In an excerpt from this week’s interview that was released on Friday, Wallace calls out Trump for claiming that former Vice President Joe Biden wants to “defund the police.” It’s a correction also made to Trump spox Hogan Gidley by Fox’s Sandra Smith earlier this week. Trump later defended the claim on Twitter.
On the topic of masks, Trump said he doesn’t regret not wearing one, but does favor them, but doesn’t favor mandating them.
“You wore a mask in public for the first time at Walter Reed this weekend,” said Wallace in this preview excerpt. “Question, the CDC says if everybody wore a mask for 4-6 weeks, we could get this under control. Do you regret not wearing a mask in a public from the start, and would you consider – will you consider a national mandate that people need to wear masks?”
“No I want people to have a certain freedom, and I don’t believe in that. No,” said Trump on the idea of mask mandates. He then cited NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, with whom the administration has developed an antagonistic relationship, as well as Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams having previously advised buying masks, as a way of calling the practice into question before claiming to be a “believer” in masks.
“And I don’t agree with the statement that if everybody wear a mask everything disappears,” he continued. “Hey, Dr. Fauci said don’t wear a mask. Our Surgeon General – terrific guy – said don’t wear a mask. Everybody who is saying don’t wear a mask – all of sudden everybody’s got to wear a mask, and as you know masks cause problems, too. With that being said, I’m a believer in masks. I think masks are good.”
Wallace summed up the President’s position for Fox’s Bret Baier: “Bottom line is the President said he is not going to issue a national mandate on masks, he’s going to leave it up to the individual states to decide how to proceed.”
Watch the clip above, courtesy of Fox News Sunday. The full interview will air tomorrow, Sunday, July 19th, on your local Fox station and on the Fox News Channel.
