Fox News anchor Chris Wallace has criticised US President Donald Trump’s family for breaking safety rules and removing their masks while in the audience of the first US presidential election debate, which he moderated.
“Everybody was told to wear a mask. Why did the first family and chief of staff feel that the rules for everybody else didn’t apply to them?” Mr Wallace asked senior Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes during an interview on Fox News Sunday.
Mr Wallace noted the Cleveland Clinic staff, which oversaw COVID-19 protocols at the debate, had offered masks to the family, but “they were waved away”.
Mr Cortes argued that “everybody was tested before the event” and said some people believe in “individual choice”.
“There was no freedom of choice. They broke the rules,” Mr Wallace replied.
Mr Wallace, Mr Trump and Mr Biden were the only people exempt from the requirement, according to Cleveland Clinic protocol.
In the debate hall, the president's family arrived wearing masks but subsequently removed them, Mr Wallace said on Friday.
Mr Trump's closest aides were also not wearing masks when they prepped him in the days ahead of his debate with Democratic rival Joe Biden, according to former New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
“No one was wearing masks in the room when we were prepping the president," Mr Christie, after news broke that Mr Trump had tested positive for the virus. Mr Christie has also since tested positive.
A big concern now is how many people in Mr Trump's inner circle might also have COVID-19.
Chris Wallace has criticised Donald Trump’s family for breaking safety rules and removing their masks while in the audience of the first US election debate. Source: Getty Images North America
Mr Christie said there were "about five or six people" in the room helping the president practice for his first debate this week with Mr Biden ahead of the 3 November election.
Mr Christie said he made regular visits to the White House "from Saturday afternoon through lunchtime on Tuesday," joining the team which included former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is now Mr Trump's personal lawyer.
He said he had not noticed the president exhibiting any symptoms of the disease during that time, and neither did Hope Hicks, the aide whose positive test preceded the diagnosis of the president and his wife Melania.
"Hope seemed completely fine, as did the president" he said.
Neither Mr Trump, 74, nor his 77-year-old Democratic rival Joe Biden wore a mask during the Cleveland debate, but they stood socially distanced at lecterns on the stage.
Mr Wallace noted First Lady Melania Trump came in wearing a mask, but took it off when she sat down. She later climbed to the stage without wearing her mask to stand next to the president.
"All the other members of the first family that I saw there, including Ivanka, Tiffany, when they sat down, they weren't wearing masks," Mr Wallace noted.
Mr Wallace said that Mr Biden's wife Jill kept hers on for the 90-minute debate, during which the president mocked his rival for always wearing protective face covering when on the campaign trail.
With additional reporting by AFP
