前副总统乔·拜登不排除在11月当选后建立联邦口罩授权的可能性呼吁全国使用口罩随着该国继续努力应对新冠肺炎的影响。
拜登在谈到如果各州拒绝采取行动时，他有能力采取联邦行动时说:“我们的法律团队认为，我可以根据这些州的危机程度以及情况对国家的不利程度来做这件事，如果我们不做，会发生什么。”
“问题是我作为总统是否有签署行政命令的法定权力。拜登后来补充说，他强调，在采取联邦行动之前，他将与科学家一起向共和党和民主党州长说明授权的必要性。
Leah Millis/路透社
2020年9月15日，佛罗里达州坦帕市希尔斯堡社区学院，民主党总统候选人、前副总统乔·拜登与退伍军人举行圆桌讨论会。
这些评论进一步强调了之间的巨大分歧拜登和唐纳德·特朗普总统就2020年的口罩问题选举进入最后一段，然后冠状病毒这场流行病已经夺去了近20万美国人的生命。
尽管戴口罩的建议现在在卫生专家中几乎是一致的，包括总统自己任命的一些人，他们都一直鼓励美国人戴口罩以遏制疾病的传播，但特朗普似乎在周二晚上的美国广播公司新闻市政厅会议上质疑这一指导。
“很多人不想戴口罩，”特朗普告诉美国广播公司新闻首席主播乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯。“有很多人觉得口罩不好。”
“那些人是谁?”斯特凡诺普洛斯按下。
“服务员，”特朗普说。“他们过来为你服务，他们有面具。他们在玩面具，所以面具结束了，他们在摸它，然后他们在摸盘子。那可不好。”
在周三的新闻发布会上，特朗普加倍了对面具的批评。
“口罩也有问题。我谈到了面具——必须小心轻放。我看到餐馆里有戴面具的人，他们在玩面具，他们拿着面具——他们的手指在面具里，然后他们端着盘子。我的意思是，我认为口罩有很多问题，”总统在白宫告诉记者。
拜登对特朗普周二的言论进行了回击，称他“削弱了我们减少这种疾病传播的最简单、最有效的手段”，并回应了总统关于他没有贯彻面具授权呼吁的言论。
“我觉得总统说的很有意思，……‘拜登没有戴上面具，”拜登周二在市政厅谈到特朗普的评论时说。
“我不是总统。他是总统。这就像，你知道，拜登的问题——这些城市在燃烧。我不是总统，他是总统，”拜登补充道。
拜登在讲话中还提到了疾病控制和预防中心主任理查德·雷德菲尔德博士周三的评论，即使用口罩比可能的疫苗更能保证免受新冠肺炎的攻击。总统在周三晚上的新闻发布会上反驳了这一评论。
“(口罩)无论如何都不比疫苗有效。我为此打电话给他，”特朗普这样评价雷德菲尔德。
Biden says he believes president has 'legal authority' to implement mask mandate
Former Vice PresidentJoe Bidenis not ruling out the possibility of instituting a federal mask mandate if elected in November to deliver on previouscalls for nationwide mask useas the country continues to grapple with the impacts of COVID-19.
"Our legal team thinks I can do that based upon the degree to which there's a crisis in those states, and how bad things are for the country, and if we don't do it, what happens," Biden said of his ability to act federally if states decline to take action.
"The question is whether I have the legal authority as president to sign an executive order. We think we do," Biden later added, stressing that he would make the case along with scientists to both Republican and Democratic governors about the necessity of a mandate before acting federally.
Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden holds a roundtable discussion with veterans at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida, Sept. 15, 2020.
The comments further highlight thedeep divide betweenBiden and President Donald Trump on the issue of masks as the 2020electionenters the final stretch, and thecoronaviruspandemic has claimed the lives of nearly 200,000 Americans.
While the recommendation to wear a mask is now almost unanimous among health experts, including some of the president's own appointees, who have all been encouraging Americans to wear masks to curtail the spread of the disease, Trump seemed to question the guidance during an ABC News town hall Tuesday night.
"A lot of people don't want to wear masks," Trump told ABC News' Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. "There are a lot of people think the masks are not good."
"Who are those people?" Stephanopoulos pressed.
"Waiters," Trump said. "They come over and they serve you, and they have a mask. They're playing with the mask, so the mask is over and they're touching it, and then they're touching the plate. That can't be good."
In a press conference Wednesday, Trump doubled down on his criticism of masks.
"Masks have problems too. And I talked about the masks -- have to be handled very gently, very carefully. I see that in restaurants there are people with masks and they are playing around with their masks and they have it -- their fingers are in their mask and then they are serving with plates. I mean, I think there's a lot of problems with masks," the president told reporters at the White House.
Biden fired back at Trump's comments Tuesday, arguing that he is "undercutting the easiest, most effective means we have for reducing the spread of this disease," and responded to the president's remarks that he had not followed through on his call for a mask mandate.
"I found it fascinating the president said, … 'Biden didn't put in a mask mandate,'" Biden said of Trump's comments during the town hall Tuesday.
"I'm not the president. He's the president. It's like, you know, Biden's problems -- and these cities are in flames. I'm not the president, he's the president," Biden added.
In his remarks,Biden also referenced Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Richard Redfield's comments Wednesday that mask use could do more to guarantee protection from COVID-19 than a possible vaccine -- comments the president contradicted in a press conference Wednesday evening.
"(Masks are) not more effective by any means than a vaccine. And I called him about that," Trump said of Redfield.
