The Democrat attorney general in Michigan on Thursday warned President Trump—who plans on touring a Ford factory in the state—that if he fails to wear a mask, “he’s going to be asked not to return to any unclosed facilities inside our state.”
Dana Nessel told CNN that her request for Trump to wear the mask is something that the state would ask “anyone else in those plants.”
FOLLOW TODD STARNES ON TWITTER
The report said Trump told reporters at the White House—who asked about the mask request—that he didn’t know, “we’re going to look at it.”
Hogan Gidley, the deputy White House press secretary, told the “Todd Starnes Show” that it will likely be a game-time decision for the president. Gidley said Trump is tested “all the time” for the virus and is not infected.
Michigan has been the focus of some protests that have accused the state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, of taking advantage of the coronavirus lockdown and keeping the state’s economy handcuffed.
Whitmer, who is being considered as a possible running mate for Joe Biden, said in an earlier interview that “some of the outrageousnesses of what happened at our capitol depicted some of the worst racism and awful parts of our history in this country.”
The state told Trump that he has the “legal responsibility” to wear a mask.
DERSHOWITZ: STATE CAN PLUNGE NEEDLE IN YOUR ARM IF YOU REFUSE VACCINE
“While my Department will not act to prevent you from touring Ford’s plant, I ask that while you are on tour you respect the great efforts of the men and women at Ford — and across this State — by wearing a facial covering,” Nessel wrote in a statement. “It is not just the policy of Ford, by virtue of the Governor’s Executive Orders. It is currently the law of this State.”
Trump’s position on wearing masks has been a topic of fascination among reporters who appear intent on painting him as reckless. He has had famous clashes with White House reporters about his decision to mainly refuse to wear them. (He exposed a CNN reporter who waited until the cameras were off to remove hers.)
There have been some coronavirus cases among White House staff, raising the concern that Trump may have been exposed. He revealed at a press conference that he was using hydroxychloroquine as a prophylaxis against the coronavirus.
Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, told the “Todd Starnes Radio Show” that “it’s a stunning thing to see people, as soon as Donald Trump said that he was taking hydroxychloroquine, who basically came out and said, ‘He’s going to die; people are going to die from it.’ And I thought, ‘Well, tell that to all the lupus patients and [the millions of] people who have had this drug prior to going to some third-world country.”