Defying COVID Restrictions, Ivanka, Donald Jr., Eric & Tiffany Trump Removed Masks During Cleveland Debate

Donald Trump‘s family ignored the mandatory mask rule at the presidential debate on Tuesday, just two days before the president and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus.

Although Trump’s family and his administration officials wore masks when they entered the Cleveland, Ohio debate hall, members of the president’s family removed their masks after sitting down. The venue had put in place several coronavirus protocols, including spacing seats socially distanced from each other, testing audience members and requiring the on-lookers to wear masks.

Ivanka, Donald Jr., Eric and Tiffany all removed their masks upon sitting down in their seats. Melania was photographed wearing her mask while sitting with the rest of her family, but reporters at the event confirmed that she did take it off when the debate started. After the debate, she was not wearing a mask when she went up on stage, though Jill Biden was.

Hallie Jackson, an NBC reporter at the debate, said that a doctor in a lab coat approached Trump’s family and friends to remind them to wear their masks, and even offered the group masks in case they didn’t have their own. Someone in the group reportedly shook their head at the doctor and no one without a mask put one on.

During the debate, Trump mocked former Vice President Joe Biden for wearing a mask during his public appearances.

“I don’t have, I don’t wear a mask like him,” the president said. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from him, and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”

Early Friday morning, Trump announced that he and Melania had tested positive for coronavirus, tweeting, “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!”