On Thursday, the Kentucky Republican made it clear that he will not engage in the battle for Kentucky Democratic Governor Andy Beshear to force public face covering in certain situations.
“I’m not in that fight,” he said at a medical center in Leitchfield, Kentucky. At the same time, he urges the Kentuckians to wear masks.
“I know there is a discussion here in the state about whether or not the governor can make you wear a mask,” he said. “I’m not in that fight. But I’m here to tell you, put it on. The best way we can all be responsible to ourselves and sensitive to the health of others is to wear a mask and practice social activities. Alienation.”
The Senate majority leader in recent months has significantly parted ways with President Donald Trump, who wore a mask publicly for the first time only over the weekend, rarely urges Americans to wear masks, and often brags about the country’s response in dismissing the growing cases of coronavirus.
“I’ve been saying over and over again to wear your mask,” McConnell said at a press event in Kentucky earlier this week. He added that it is “the most important thing” we can do, a sentiment that the Republican leader has repeated since the beginning of May, often while waving a blue mask in the air.
McConnell wears a mask in public and during Senate sessions, repeatedly saying how important it is to “set a good example in that regard.”
“He has no idea what a Republican or Democrat is,” McConnell said of the virus Monday at a Mount Vernon, Kentucky, hospital.
It’s “amazing,” McConnell said Thursday, that wearing masks has become a political problem in the midst of a pandemic.
“I was a little surprised how this ended up becoming a factor in American politics,” he said. “The coronavirus is not involved in American politics at all.”
“It is the right thing to do,” McConnell said, noting how Kentucky is “getting some increase” in coronavirus cases. While Kentucky has so far been relatively successful in keeping the case count low, the state is seeing an increase in cases, which recently exceeded 20,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
“I want to encourage everyone, regardless of who has the authority to demand it or not, to do it,” he said Thursday.
CNN’s Manu Raju, Rebekah Riess and Caroline Kelly contributed to this report.
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