During Tuesday night’s presidential debate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio a doctor from the Cleveland Clinic approached audience members on Donald Trump’s side of the hall, including the president’s four adult children, asked them to wear masks and offered protective face coverings.
Members of Trump’s entourage, including his children, refused, even though mask-wearing in the Samson Pavilion on the university’s main campus was mandated to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Business Insider, Bloomberg and NBC News all reported.
Ivanka Trump, a White House senior advisor, and her siblings, Donald Jr., Eric and Tiffany Trump arrived at the event wearing masks, but took them off once they were seated in the hall, reports said. Melania Trump kept her mask on for a short time after taking a seat but ended up removing it, Business Insider reported.
Trump family members refused to wear masks during debate with Joe Biden—violating the guidelines for the event, put in place by the Cleveland Clinic.
A doctor monitoring the event for safety violations, said they refused to take masks that he offered.https://t.co/s6P4SahxbH
— Arctic Friend (@FriendEden100) September 30, 2020
NBC News said that a Cleveland Clinic doctor in a white lab coat started to approach the Trump children to ask them to put on masks, but she wasn’t able to get close enough. Someone in the crowd shook their head at the doctor as if to say move along. Bloomberg News reporter Tyler Pager also said that people on Trump’s side of the room refused to take the masks offered by the doctor.
He noted that people on Biden’s side of the room, including the Democratic nominee’s wife, Jill Biden, kept their masks on.
A Cleveland Clinic doctor with masks just walked up to a number of unmasked members of the audience on Trump’s side of the room and asked them to put on masks. She told me they refused to take one and wear them. https://t.co/rNUFjLfUEf
— Tyler Pager (@tylerpager) September 30, 2020
Jill Biden also wore a mask while joining her husband on stage after the debate, but Melania Trump was maskless.
First Lady Melania Trump and Dr. Jill Biden join their husbands at the conclusion of the first presidential debate. #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/GbdtBQjjNm
— The Hill (@thehill) September 30, 2020
The challenges of hosting the debate during COVID-19 prompted the University of Notre Dame to back out; Case Western and the Cleveland Clinic stepped up to host the debate and to offer a safe setting, according to Peter Eyre, a senior adviser for the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Eyre told Cleveland’s WJW news station that everyone entering pavilion would undergo screening for COVID-19. He also said mask-wearing would be mandatory.
“There are things we’re doing differently this year that we haven’t done before because of COVID-19,” Eyre said. “That includes a variety of testing, social distancing, mask wearing and obviously reducing the total number of people who will be involved.”
Trump Jr. later laughed off not wearing a mask when he appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, joking that he didn’t want to be thrown in “the gulag” for not following the debate safety guidelines. He said he had been tested for the virus.
The Trump family’s refusal to wear masks came as Biden used the debate to attack Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. “He’s been totally irresponsible the way he’s handled social distancing and discouraging people to wear masks,” Biden said.
More than 206,000 people have died from coronavirus in the United States, but not wearing a face mask has seemed a badge of honor for Trump, and a political talking point for Republicans. During the debate, Trump criticized Biden for wearing masks too often.
Notably, Trump supporters were critical of Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump and other female members of Trump’s family for posing for photos wearing masks before the debate.
Let’s go! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/sDmKI5WXFN
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) September 30, 2020
An Instagram photo shared by Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife and a Trump campaign adviser, drew some harsh comments. She posed with Ivanka Trump, Melania Trump, Tiffany Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, and another Trump campaign adviser.
“Mask off,” wrote Tito Ortiz, a California resident and vocal Trump supporter currently campaigning for a seat on Huntington Beach’s city council, Newsweek reported.
“Please take the masks off!” another Instagram user commented. “You have an immune system!”
