First Lady Pushes Masks After Trump's Months-Long Aversion
KEILAR: First lady, Melania Trump, sending out what would normally be an obvious common-sense message in the middle of a pandemic, quote, "Please remember to wear face coverings and practice social distancing. The more precaution we take now can mean a healthier and safer country in the fall." Well, we'll see if her husband has notifications on his phone when she tweets. Kaitlan Collins, our CNN White House Correspondent, joining me now at the White House. I mean, she is saying that the common-sense thing that actually most administration officials are starting to say now. Of course, he does not say this. This is mixed messaging coming from the Trumps.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's been like this for months, even internally. Aides know there's a split and that if the first lady is going to be at something, she is much more vigilant about mask wearing than President Trump has. Even once going to be on Air Force One and they told everyone on Air Force One they were going to have to wear a mask, something that breaks with what, of course, the president had been doing. And their justification that because the people around Trump are tested, they do not need to wear a mask, is what they claim. This comes as there are still mixed messages whether or not to wear mask coming from the administration, though health experts say you should. And instead, the focus internally lately, over the last few days, has been on this spat that you have seen with Dr. Anthony Fauci after the White House anonymously circulated this list criticizing him and questioning his judgment saying that they feel that he is too praised in the media. And the president himself had been irritated by Fauci's good approval ratings. Now we are learning that really has backfired. The White House seems to have come to the conclusion and backing off of it, saying it wasn't opposition research that they were putting out on Dr. Fauci. But some of the president's allies, like Senator Lindsey Graham are questioning why the White House is picking a fight with Dr. Fauci when there's a national surge of cases going on. And people want answers of going back to work, school, all of that. And I want to note something, Brianna, that we just found out. The president, over the last few weeks, has been very hesitant about taking questions from the White House press corps. He took a few yesterday. I believe it was one of the lengthiest back-and-forths he's had in some time. And the White House just announced that the president is going to hold a press conference, they say, at 5:00 p.m. today. But it's to be determined if he takes questions at that. Because often they have called it a press conference where he doesn't take questions and he just reads a statement. We'll see if he takes our questions today.</s>KEILAR: That, a press conference does not make. A very important thing you'll be looking into there. Kaitlan, thank you so much. So 43 cases tied to a house party in Washington State and now dozens more are exposed. Plus, one county's board of education defying the rest of the state that it's in, voting to reopen schools without social distancing, without masks.