Image Credit: Twitter/@TheRecount 
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows refused to answer questions from reporters after they shamed him for removing his face mask.
In a clip of the short encounter outside Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing, Meadows is seen rearranging a podium so he can stand 10 feet away from reporters and safely remove his face mask.
“I’ll tell you what, let me pull this away…” Meadows says grabbing the podium and moving it a few feet back to maintain an adequate social distance.
“Yep, yep, pull away,” a female reporter, identified as CNN’s Kristin Wilson, is overheard sniping at him.
“…that way I can take this off to talk,” Meadows says, removing his mask.
As he takes off the mask, a reporter is heard groaning, “No!” at which point Meadows responds, “Well, I’m more than ten feet away.”
Moments later, Meadows walks away from the podium, puts his mask back on and tells reporters he’s “not going to talk to them through a mask.”
Compare that to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who immediately followed media requests to put his mask on during an interview.
In contrast to Mark Meadows earlier, Sen. Lindsey Graham has no problem putting his mask back on to talk to reporters during a hearing break. pic.twitter.com/FA5d1t6bmJ
— The Recount (@therecount) October 12, 2020
The incident comes as Meadows’ boss, President Trump, has been given the all clear by White House doctors and “is no longer considered a transmission risk to others.”