Conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity, usually a reliable mouthpiece for President Donald Trump, took a rare stance at odds with Trump on the issue of wearing masks amid COVID-19 on Tuesday night.
During his program, Hannity decried the crowd of vacationers at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri who were blatantly disregarding health officials’ guidelines on preventing the spread of the virus.
He then urged viewers to wear masks, a precautionary measure recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that Trump has both ignored and derided as a crusade by those he claims are part of the politically correct crowd.
“If you can’t social distance, please wear the mask,” Hannity pleaded. “Do it for your mom, your dad, your grandma, your grandpa.”
The right-wing host asserted that “we need to use some common sense.”
“You need to be cautious. Take precautions because we don’t want it to spread to vulnerable people,” Hannity said. “We’ve seen what happens when we do.”
During a press briefing earlier on Tuesday, Trump swiped at a reporter for wearing a mask.
“You want to be politically correct,” he said.
Not only do Hannity’s pleas stand in contrast with Trump’s attitude on masks, they also mark a pivot from the conservative host’s earlier efforts to downplay the pandemic itself.
Watch Hannity below:
Hannity urges viewers to "please wear the mask": "We need to use common sense." pic.twitter.com/BARbCNCJHa
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 27, 2020
