Kamala Harris said on Friday that a nationwide mask mandate would be among the first orders of business if she and Joe Biden were elected to the White House in November, calling it the “responsible” thing to do.
The Democratic vice presidential nominee expanded on the three-month plan that Biden has
promised to enact if he won the White House, explaining that every American would be expected to wear a face covering amid the pandemic.
“Yes,” Harris, 55, said when asked if that would be one of their first actions in power during an interview
on NBC’s “TODAY.”
“It’s a standard. I mean, nobody’s going to be punished,” Harris continued when asked how it would be enforced.
“Nobody likes to wear a mask, this is a universal feeling, right? So, that’s not the point,” she said.
“The the point is this is what we as responsible people who love our neighbor, we have to just do that right now. God willing, it won’t be forever.”
The CDC recommends mask-wearing in public when you are unable to stay 6-feet away from others so as to stop the spread of disease.
President Trump
rejected Biden’s mandate earlier this month during a White House briefing, telling reporters the Democratic nominee had showed an “appalling lack of respect” for the American people.
“It’s up to the governors. We want to have a certain freedom,” Trump said.
“If the president has the unilateral power to order every single citizen to cover their face in nearly all instances, what other powers does he have?” he asked.
In the TODAY interview, Harris was also asked about the police shooting of Jacob Blake which continues to case
racial unrest across the nation.
Harris, a former prosecutor who identifies as black, was probed on whether she thought the officer who shot Blake needed to be charged.
‘”he use of force that was seven bullets coming out of a gun at close range in the back of the man? I don’t see how anybody could reason that that was justifiable,” Harris said.
“I think there should be a through investigation and based on what I’ve seen, it seems the officer should be charged,” the lawmaker added.
When pressed on the fact Blake reportedly resisted arrested and a knife was later found in his vehicle, Harris responded: “Everyone should be afforded due process.”
“I agree with that completely. But we know these cases keep happening and we have had too many black men in America who have been the subject of this kind of conduct,” she said.
