Miami Beach Mayor Appeals to Trump, DeSantis on Getting People to Wear Masks: ‘They Need to Lead’

Miami Beach mayor Dan Gelber appealed to President Donald Trump Monday to set an example by telling people to wear masks as states continue dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

As MSNBC’s Katy Tur asked about the possibility of going back to a full lockdown if the curve doesn’t bend down, Gelber said, “If people would just follow the rules, honestly, we wouldn’t need to do this — even be talking about another sheltering in place if people just followed the mask requirement we have, if people just exercised the physical distancing, we wouldn’t be here, but we are for exactly that reason.”

“Why aren’t they?” Tur asked.

Gelber faulted both the president and Governor Ron DeSantis:

“In a hurricane, everybody’s on the same page, and all of the elected leaders say exactly the same thing you know. Now I hear from people all the time, President Trump is absolutely no help in this, because he’s just telegraphing to people this is not a sacrifice they need to make. Mask-wearing is the littlest of sacrifices — the littlest. It’s something that helps a loved one or a stranger, it’s an American thing to do. Our governor won’t issue a mandatory mask order statewide, which would send a real message.”

Gelber also said that both the president and the governor need to send the message that people should be wearing masks, saying “I have no earthly idea why I have to argue with everybody about wearing a mask, and it does occur to me that a lot of folks that are arguing back are people who support the president and support our governor.”

“They’re leaders, and they need to lead.”

You can watch above, via MSNBC.