Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called for a national mask mandate to fight the COVID in mid-August. At the time he called such a mandate “real leadership” and criticized President Trump for not calling for a similar mandate forcing all Americans to wear face masks.
Biden’s call included forcing Americans to wear masks even when they are outside, and claimed the mandate would “save over 40,000 lives.”
“Every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing,” Joe Biden says. “The estimates by the experts are it will save over 40,000 lives in the next 3 months.” pic.twitter.com/jt8AhpXxBp
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 13, 2020
CNBC reported on Biden’s comments and his running mate Kamala Harris’s support for the mandate at the time.
Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, called for a nationwide mask mandate on Thursday, drawing a sharp contrast with President Donald Trump, who rarely wears a mask himself and opposes such mandates.
“Every single American should be wearing a mask when they’re outside for the next three months at a minimum,” Biden said at a press appearance in Wilmington, Delaware. “Every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing. The estimates by the experts are that it will save over 40,000 lives in the next three months. Forty thousand lives, if people act responsibly.”
That was then. This is now. In a rare lucid moment, Biden remembered that America has a Constitution which limits the powers of the presidency. Biden is walking back the mandate talk, reports the NY Post:
Asked to respond to the governors who had appreciated President Trump’s more targeted coronavirus approach, which gave more authority to the states, Biden said, “Well, I hope you could trust the governors.
“But here’s the deal, the federal government — there’s a constitutional issue whether federal government could issue such a mandate. I don’t think constitutionally they could, so I wouldn’t issue a mandate.”
Biden in August: Force Americans to wear masks because “real leadership.”
“So let’s just institute a mass mandate nationwide starting immediately. And we will save — the estimates are that we will save 40,000 lives in the next three months once that is done.”
Biden in September. Eh, maybe not.
He was vice president for 8 years and a senator since the Nixon administration. He’s just now discovering the Constitution?
The debates will be fun (if Biden doesn’t find a way out of them). Between this issue and Biden’s previous flip on fracking, the former veep could debate himself and lose while President Trump merely looks on in bemusement.
The media will still report Biden’s amazing, victorious debate performance of course.
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