Manchin: Unless You Make Masks Mandatory, ‘You’re Going to Have a Problem’

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) sounded off on the dissent against mandates to wear masks amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In the interview, Manchin stressed the importance of taking proper precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. He also said unless there are mandates to wear masks, “you’re going to have a problem” with people not wearing them.

“I believe that any type of a business opening up, first of all, we shouldn’t ask them to open up unless they had proper PPEs — personal protective equipment,” Manchin told host Andrea Mitchell. “So, that means every building, every business, whether it be a barbershop or a parlor, a hair salon, whatever, would have had — protected for all their employees, because — and then we should have been testing.”

He continued, “[A]s a businessperson, if the governor is not going to do it and say, listen, all businesses, if you’re going to partake in a business, you have to have your mask on when you go in. In Washington, D.C., I went to the CVS about a month ago. I forgot my mask. And they said, it’s mandatory. And from that day forward, I never forgot it again. So, unless you make it mandatory, you’re going to have a problem. And I think we’re going to have to take this extra precaution, until we get an antibody or get a vaccine. It’s going to be uncomfortable. It’s not going to be who we are as a people, but it’s going to be safe. And all the experts and all the scientists are telling us. I wish the president would heed their advice.”

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