Following the announcement early Friday that President Trump and the First Lady had tested positive for COVID-19, the Hispanic media have gone out of its way to criticize how Trump and his family did not wear masks during the debate, failing to mention any concerns about their health.
Telemundo devoted a great deal of time in their report to discussing how Trump "made fun" of Joe Biden at their recent debate, for wearing a mask. Both anchor Nicole Suárez and reporter Cristina Londoño chose to highlight that angle, when what Trump really did say is that he does not wear masks as much as Biden, but does so when necessary.
Let's see how Telemundo turned the news that Trump tested positive for COVID into a political issue in this report:
NICOLE SUAREZ: In the debate he was in with Joe Biden he even made fun of him for wearing a mask. Tell us about it.
CRISTINA LONDOÑO: Yes, he told Joe Biden that he used the mask too much, that his face was always covered. Let's hear a little bit of what he said.
TRUMP: You have to understand. If you look, I mean, I have a mask right here. I'll put a mask on, you know, when I think I need it.
LONDOÑO: There he said, here's my mask and I put it on when I think I need it
It was evident that Telemundo wants to convey to their audience that the President was infected with COVID-19 as a result of not being careful, and not using a mask during his day-to-day activities as frequently as Joe Biden.
They preferred to focus more on how his family did not wear a mask at all times, and how they told a doctor present at the debate that they were not going to use one. Nowhere in the report was it mentioned that the Trump family maintained social distancing, as did the other people present at the debate.
By the way, the reporter of this liberal medium spoke of how Ivanka and Donald Jr. did not use a mask. However, the image shown was not that of Don Jr., but of Eric Trump.
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Click on "expand" to read the full transcript from October 2:
Telemundo's Un Nuevo Día
October 2, 2020
7:11 a.m. EasternNICOLE SUÁREZ: In the last hours they also mentioned that Trump said the end of the pandemic was in sight and in the debate in which he was with Joe Biden. He even made fun of him for wearing a mask. Tell us about it.
CRISTINA LONDOÑO: Yes, he told Joe Biden that he used the mask too much, that his face was always covered. Let's hear a little bit of what he said.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You have to understand. If you look, I mean, I have a mask right here. I'll put a mask on, you know, when I think I need it.
LONDOÑO: There he said, I have my mask here and I put it on when I think I need it. The Cleveland Clinic, which was one of --- the center where the debate took place, had demanded that everyone in the audience wear masks. The only people who weren't going to wear the mask were the president, Joe Biden, and the moderator. The president's family, however, entered with their faces covered, they sat down and took off their masks right there. In the audience there were about 80 people watching the debate. Marianna Sotomayor, an NBC reporter who is following the Biden campaign, says on Twitter that she witnessed how a female doctor approached members of President Trump's family and asked them to put on the mask and said if they didn't have one available, she could give one to them. They refused to use it and the doctor said, well, she just couldn't do anything about it. The clinic the day after the debate also released a statement saying that they expected all the public to wear the mask but the president's family did not. I can tell you that there were also close advisers to the president who traveled on the plane with the president who were with Hope Hicks - look there we have the images of the family. There's Ivanka, Donald Jr., and none of them wore the mask. And close members of the president were with the press giving interviews next to each other and they too without wearing a mask. We were only a few feet from White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany. She was not wearing the mask, we had it on by NBC policy.
