Donald Trump hated wearing COVID masks because they f**ked up his bronzer!
So claims Cassidy Hutchinson (pictured above, inset) in her new book, at least. The former White House aide’s book Enough was released on Tuesday, and among the many presidential bombshells in it comes this tale from June 2020.
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Per Hutchinson’s tome, she was allegedly the one who pointed out to the then-President that he was getting bronzer “everywhere” after putting on a COVID mask. In an excerpt of the book provided to The Guardian, Hutchinson wrote Trump had been touring a mask-making facility in Arizona in May of that year. During the tour, Trump “decided on a white mask,” put it on, and asked staffers what they thought of the look. She wrote:
“I slowly shook my head. The president pulled the mask off and asked why I thought he should not wear it. I pointed to the straps of the N95 I was holding. When he looked at the straps of his mask, he saw they were covered in bronzer. Why did no one else tell me that? I’m not wearing this thing.”
WTF?!
Remembering how the media pounced on Trump for not wearing a mask in public after that, Hutchinson added:
“[The press criticized Trump] not knowing that the depth of his vanity had caused him to reject masks — and then millions of his fans followed suit.”
From then on, Hutchinson wrote, Trump was vocally against wearing masks. His public appearances back that up, too. Take his June 2020 campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The rally was not socially-distanced, as was recommended at the time. Instead, Trump and his supporters went mostly mask-free for what ended up becoming a super-spreader event.
As part of that Tulsa rally, prominent Republican and past presidential candidate Herman Cain was on hand. Amid the no-masking and the lack of social distancing, Cain got sick. Days later, he tested positive for COVID-19. By early July, he was hospitalized for it, and by late July, he was dead. Another casualty of the pandemic, sadly…
After Cain’s death, Hutchinson recalls speaking to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows. During their chat, Meadows supposedly said:
“We killed Herman Cain.”
Oof.
FWIW, a spokesperson for Meadows disputed Hutchinson’s claim in a statement to CNN on Tuesday. Meadows’ rep claimed the political staffer was actually “expressing exasperation” over how the media was spinning Cain’s death rather than copping to having caused it:
“In the days after he was expressing exasperation that the media would blame the president for Mr. Cain’s death.”
Hmmm…
Regardless, it’s crazy to think how the pandemic response might have changed if Trump hadn’t gotten so mad about his bronzer getting smudged once he put on a mask. If Trump was cool with masking up, would his supporters have been, too? Would fewer people have died after super-spreader events like the Tulsa rally? Would Herman Cain still be alive today?!
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