He said this while, get this, not wearing a mask (screenshot from video at link)
During a town hall on CNN on Thursday, 2020 Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden stated that he would have the authority as president to have a mask mandate on federal property and land and he will institute one, which could come with a fine for noncompliance. Biden also stated that he would prefer to see state governors have mask mandates, and would encourage them to have state mask mandates, but he can’t do one nationally.
Biden said, “I cannot mandate people wearing masks. … I would call every governor in the country into the White House, say, you should be putting mandates out. And if they don’t, I’d call the mayors in their towns, in their cities and say, put out mandates.â€
Biden later added, “I would like to see the governors enforce mask wearing, period. I can do that on federal property. As president, I will do that. On federal land, I’d have the authority. If you’re on federal land, you must wear a mask, in a federal building, you must wear a mask. And we could have a fine for them not doing it. Look, this is about saving people’s lives. There’s no question that it saves people’s lives.â€
This is after his previous yammering about saying there will be a federal mask mandate for all, then saying he can’t do that because of the pesky Constitution, so, is his triangulation complete? Again, 34 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico have mandates. Has anyone in his campaign bothered to let him know this? As for towns implementing them, well, we’ve learned that lower level government isn’t allowed to implement tougher laws/restrictions than higher government, right? That’s the fallout from the Democrats suing Arizona over SB1070, their illegal immigration law.
(Fox News) The reviews are in for the CNN town hall featuring Joe Biden… and they aren’t great.
While Biden’s performance has received praise for his ability to display empathy towards Pennsylvania voters selected to ask questions, what has been described as the “softball” treatment of the former VP by CNN was widely panned on Thursday night, especially following the grilling President Trump faced at the ABC News town hall on Tuesday. (snip)
“So far the questions at CNN’s drive-in #BidenTownHall sound as if they were written by Biden’s campaign: “Tell us how bad Trump isâ€. Reversal of the president’s ABC townhall,” columnist Miranda Devine observed.
The Trump campaign released a statement slamming the CNN event.
“Virtually every question for Joe Biden was an invitation for him to attack President Trump, while moderator Anderson Cooper offered almost no pushback, giving Biden a total pass on his lies and misrepresentations,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said before listing subjects the former VP wasn’t asked like his economic record and his opposition to Trump’s travel ban on China early on during the coronavirus outbreak.
And
Joe Biden and Anderson Cooper are making a point of social distancing during the CNN Town Hall while on the stage.
But when they think they’ve gone to commercial break, they get so close to each other that Biden is whispering in Cooper’s ear: pic.twitter.com/ClZXrxFfSo
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) September 18, 2020
Read: Handsy Joe Biden Says He’ll Do Mask Mandate On Federal Property, Tell States To Do Their Own »