#Mark Meadows says there will be no national mandate on masks

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows on Monday rejected a national mandate making masks mandatory, saying it is “not in order.”

“Well, it’s certainly a state-to-state issue, as we look across the country, obviously the narrative is the COVID cases are rising, but testing is rising exponentially,” Meadows told “Fox & Friends” after the number of new daily cases peaked at 55,220 on Thursday.

“When we look at masks and the wearing of masks, that’s done on a location basis, when you can’t have social distancing, but certainly a national mandate is not in order,” he continued, deferring to state leaders.

“We’re allowing our local governors and our local mayors to weigh in on that.”

The president is headed to New Hampshire on Saturday where he will hold a campaign rally at Portsmouth Airport, his first event after a relatively poorly-attended rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma last month.

Meadows would not say whether Trump will wear a mask, telling Fox: “President Trump mentioned he is willing to wear a mask if appropriate in tight quarters.”

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Sunday that masks should be a “national requirement,” making them mandatory in public as a number of states see a record number of infections.

“It’s become almost not even debatable,” he told NBC TV’s “Meet the Press.”

“I think it ought to be a national, a national requirement,” he said.

Guidelines still vary from state to state, with Florida and Texas recently making masks mandatory in public.

The president last week said people “should” wear masks if they “feel good about it” but said he didn’t think face coverings needed to be mandatory in public.