President Joe Biden sparked controversy across social media after he appeared to jokingly ask the audience not to tell people that he did not wear a mask when he entered the room.
Biden celebrated the signing of a contract between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association on Wednesday. Despite his wife testing positive for COVID-19 this Monday, Biden appeared at the event in person and without a mask.
"I've been tested again today, I'm clear across the board," Biden declared as he walked into the room. "But they keep telling me, because this has to be ten days or something, I've got to keep wearing it. But don't tell them I didn't have it on when I walked in."
Earlier in the day, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre deflected questions on Biden's flagrant violation of White House COVID-19 protocols when he removed his mask to deliver remarks at Tuesday's Medal of Honor ceremony and never put it back on.
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The CDC guidelines that the White House said Biden would observe state that those exposed to COVID-19 must wear a mask when indoors and around other people, so Biden’s conduct sparked outrage on the internet.
"Joe Biden is refusing to following CDC guidance on masking — how many people will die because he’s too selfish and uncaring to wear a mask?" Outkick writer Ian Miller sarcastically asked.
"If only children in Montgomery County public schools also had the freedom to not wear a mask," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wrote in a social media post.
"They’re trying to sell Biden as a mask rebel after he spent months condemning Americans for failing their ‘patriotic duty,’" reporter Charlie Spiering wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Townhall.com columnist Phil Holloway declared, "The mask theater has reached ultra-clown levels," and posted a quartet of clown emojis.
"We're right there with you - don't tell us to mask either," director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation Lora Ries wrote.
Multiple commentators expressed curiosity about who Biden had been referring to when asking the audience not to tell "them" about him not wearing a mask.
"Who is ‘them?’" FOX News Media contributor Tomi Lahren inquired.
"Who is ‘they?’" Texas Public Policy Foundation executive director and general counsel Robert Henneke similarly asked.
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