Trump’s debate guests refused to wear masks, flouting
rules
By
Shawn Boburg and
Oct. 2, 2020 at 6:22 p.m. CDT
A little
more than two days before she reported testing positive for the coronavirus,
first lady Melania Trump — as well as the president’s sons, daughters and
several guests — violated safety protocols at the first presidential debate by
taking off their masks after being seated in a live studio audience in Cleveland.
Several in
the president’s entourage continued without masks after an official
from the Cleveland Clinic, which co-hosted the debate, offered them masks in
case they didn’t have any, according to debate moderator Chris Wallace. “They
waved them away,” Wallace said on Fox News on Friday morning.
It was
a violation of rules that both campaigns agreed to, Frank Fahrenkopf, head of
the Commission on Presidential Debates, said in an interview with The
Washington Post.
“The
first family came in wearing masks, but they took them off. The rules said you
had to wear a mask,” Fahrenkopf said. “Everyone in that hall was supposed to
keep the mask on, other than the president, Biden and Chris Wallace.”
In a
statement, the Cleveland Clinic, the health adviser to the debate commission,
confirmed that some unidentified members of the audience did not follow the
rules during the 90-minute debate.
“Individuals
entering the debate hall were masked and in some cases removed their masks once
seated,” the statement said. “A Cleveland Clinic physician did offer audience
members masks, but some did not adhere to the requirement.”
The
confluence of the two major party candidates, their staffs and guests — all
indoors in the same room for an extended period of time — has put a spotlight
on the president’s disregard for virus precautions two days before he, his wife
and close aide Hope Hicks would test positive. All three attended the debate.
Former
vice president Joe Biden and his wife underwent testing Friday morning and
reported the tests were negative. The Cleveland Clinic said Friday that it
believes the risk for transmission at the event was low, but the clinic has
begun reaching out to all attendees to offer testing.
Democrats
on Friday raised questions about the coronavirus safety protocols around the
debate and even whether the debate should have been allowed to begin while
audience members openly flouted safety protocols. Some said future debates, if
they go on, will need even stricter guidelines and enforcement.
On
Tuesday, there were essentially two sets of protocols for debate
attendees — one for campaigns and their guests, and one for everyone else.
University
officials, journalists and others in the roughly 80-member audience were
required to arrive early and submit to nasal swab testing before the debate.
A Post
reporter credentialed for the debate arrived Monday, submitted to a test and
was told to return to her hotel and await results. Within four hours, she and
other reporters were notified by email or text. They were then fitted with
bracelets showing they were negative, which granted them access to a press
building blocks away from the debate venue.
By
contrast, campaigns were responsible for testing candidates and their guests,
the Cleveland Clinic confirmed in a statement Friday.
“Individuals
traveling with both candidates, including the candidates themselves, had been
tested and tested negative by their respective campaigns,” the statement said.
The
clinic added that it believes there was “low risk of exposure to our guests”
during the debate because of safety protocols, which also included social
distancing, hand sanitizing and temperature checks.
The
president and his guests at the debate received rapid coronavirus tests on
Tuesday, White House officials said. Rapid tests differ from the PCR, or
polymerase chain reaction, tests that are considered the gold standard for
diagnosis of acute coronavirus infection.
The
White House in March began using rapid tests made by Abbott Laboratories. The
tests produce results in five to 13 minutes, but in a study earlier this year
they missed a third of the positive samples identified by another brand. Some
more recent academic studies have said Abbott’s tests miss infections 20
to 30 percent of the time. The company says they perform far more accurately
than that when used as intended.
Fahrenkopf
said the debate commission was told of no positive tests in advance of the
event.
According
to White House officials, neither the president, nor Hicks nor other aides wore
masks on the trip to Cleveland.
At the
debate hall Tuesday, roughly 80 chairs were spaced apart with antibacterial
wipes set on each, and signs were posted reminding guests to social distance,
according to dispatches filed by Anita Kumar, a Politico reporter who was the
designated pool reporter for the White House Correspondents’ Association and
was allowed to enter the venue ahead of most guests.
The
campaigns had each been allotted 15 tickets, and Kumar found most of those on
Trump’s side had chairs reserved by name: first lady Melania Trump, Ivanka
Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump, Lara Trump, Kimberly
Guilfoyle, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows,
Phoebe Meadows and Blake Meadows.
Filling
in a seat behind Guilfoyle was UFC fighter Colby Covington, and behind Ivanka
Trump was Alice Johnson, a criminal justice reform advocate.
By the
time Melania Trump entered, minutes before the debate began, all of the Trump
guests had taken off their masks.
The
Cleveland Clinic health safety official, wearing a white lab coat, soon
approached the Trump group, according to Wallace.
The
official “offered them masks in case they didn’t have them, and they were waved
away,” Wallace, a Fox News anchor, said Friday morning in an interview on the
network. “And people in the hall noticed.”
“That
actually violated the rules of the Cleveland Clinic,” Wallace said.
Wallace’s
account echoed that of NBC reporter Marianna Sotomayor, who tweeted: “I witnessed a Cleveland Clinic doctor
remind Trump’s guests to wear a mask, even offering them surgical ones on the
off chance they didn’t have one. None of them put on a mask. The doctor looked
frustrated as she stepped away, prompting a staffer to say, ‘That’s all you can
do.’ ”
In
Cleveland, wearing a mask in nonresidential indoor spaces is required under an
ordinance that has been in place since July. The event was held inside a
pavilion on the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University and
Cleveland Clinic.
The
Cleveland Clinic is advising the Commission on Presidential Debates about
health safety at all of this year’s presidential debates. “Debate precautions
will be aligned with county, state and CDC guidelines for health, safety and
physical distancing,” it says on its website.
Even
before the news that Trump contracted the coronavirus, the Biden campaign had
been pressing the Commission on Presidential Debates to change the format of
the vice-presidential exchange and require the candidates to stand about 12
feet apart — as Biden and Trump did — rather than be seated about seven feet
apart, according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke on the
condition of anonymity.
Biden’s
team believes the news about Trump will prompt the commission to agree, said
the person, who is not authorized to publicly discuss internal campaign
deliberations:
“The
pressure is on the commission to err on the side of safety right now.”
Rep.
Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) was in the debate hall on Tuesday night, and on Friday
morning went to get tested for the coronavirus. “I started my morning off with
a cup of coffee, Maria Bartiromo, and then a Q-Tip down my nose,” he said. He
expressed anger at the Trump family for not wearing masks during the debate, as
they were instructed to do. “The rules don’t apply to them,” he said.
Anne
Gearan, Annie Linskey and Paulina Villegas contributed to this report.
