COVID-19 Safety Precautions: Ted Cruz Refuses To Wear Mask While Speaking To Reporters

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said he would not wear a mask while talking to reporters outside the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room. Cruz argued that he didn't need a mask because he was standing 6 feet from the journalists.

Cruz, R-Texas, stepped in front of reporters Thursday with Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, who can be seen in a video putting on his face mask while Cruz takes his off.

After a CNN reporter asked Cruz if he would put his mask back on, Cruz responded, “No.”

Cruz added he was “standing 6 feet apart, which is what the CDC guideline is.”

For events and gatherings indoors, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people both socially distance and wear masks to minimize the risk of infection.

On Monday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows refused to wear a mask while speaking to reporters at Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

"I’m more than 10 feet away ... that way I can take this off,” Meadows said before removing his mask.

After a reporter asked him to put it back on, Meadows replaced the mask and walked away, saying, “I’m not going to talk through a mask.”

Meadows is among the White House employees who continued to work out of his office and directly interact with President Trump since the president was diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier this month. Meadows has since tested negative for the virus on multiple occasions.

Trump continues to question the effectiveness of masks even after he contracted COVID-19. On Thursday, Trump repeated an incorrect claim about masks, citing a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Then you see CDC comes out with a statement that 85 percent of the people wearing masks catch it?" he told Fox Business. "What's that all about?"

Trump was referring to a Sept. 10 report from the CDC that found that going out to eat raised the risk of infection more than other social activities. The report went viral on social media, with the claims that the agency’s mask guidance isn’t preventing people from getting sick. On Wednesday afternoon, the CDC tweeted that “the interpretation that more mask-wearers are getting infected compared to non-mask wearers is incorrect.”