Ohio’s GOP Gov. Mike DeWine on Sunday said President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis will help Americans realize “we need to wear a mask” to slow the coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” DeWine said Trump’s illness is a “cautionary tale for people.”
“What I hope is that what we have seen with the president is a cautionary tale for people and people will understand, look, it can happen to the president, it can happen to you and it can happen to your family,” he said.
“You wear a mask to help other people,” he continued. “If anything good can come out of this tragedy of the president and the White House, we hope people will look at that and say we need to wear a mask and this is what we need to do to slow this thing down."
DeWine said it was “important” that the president did the right things after his diagnosis.
“The president went to the hospital. That could not have been an easy thing for him to do,” he said. “I'm sure he didn't want to go to the hospital but made the right decision. ...this should be kind of an alert to everybody that anybody can get the virus, even president of the United States can get the virus. ... I'm hoping that they will look at this and say president can get it, I can get it and it can happen to anybody. I hope that is what happens and that is what comes out of this."
DeWine said voters are concerned about other things that Trump has accomplished.
"Do I wish the president had worn a mask all the time? Of course,” he said.
“When people go vote, there is other things besides that. I think the president has done a very good job... in trying to get us the things that we need, the testing that we need. And the [personal protective equipment] that we need and that does not, frankly, a lot of times get reported."
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