Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) refused to wear a mask during a press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday after a reporter repeatedly asked him to put one on as a courtesy to others in the room.
As he stepped up to a bank of microphones, a reporter asked Cruz: “Would you mind putting a mask on for us?”
“Uh, yeah, when I’m talking in front of the TV cameras I’m not going to wear a mask,” Cruz responded. “And all of us have been immunized,” Cruz added as he turned and gestured to several of his GOP Senate colleagues who were standing behind him and wearing a mask.
“It would make us feel better,” the reporter pressed Cruz.
“You’re welcome to step away if you like. The whole point of a vaccine … CDC guidance is what we’re following,” Cruz told the reporter.
However, guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends that even those who have been vaccinated continue wearing masks because vaccines are not 100 percent effective and it is unknown if the virus can still be spread by those who have received the vaccine.
Watch the exchange below.
REPORTER: “Would you mind putting on a mask for us?”
CRUZ: “Yeah, when I’m talking to the TV camera, I’m not going to wear a mask. All of us have been immunized.”
REPORTER: “It’d make us feel better.”
CRUZ: “You’re welcome to step away if you’d like.” pic.twitter.com/0d0rvz0OAJ
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 25, 2021
