Trump's COVID Testing Czar Wishes More People Wore Masks in White House, at Trump Rallies

The former COVID testing czar under the Trump administration, Brett Giroir, wishes more people had worn face masks in the White House and at Trump rallies when he sat on the coronavirus task force.

"There was not much mask-wearing at the White House, and we were very concerned about that, and there was not much mask-wearing at rallies, even though they were made available," Grioir told CNN's New Day on Friday. "These were things I wish would have been done for sure."

While he was in office, former President Donald Trump infamously downplayed the effectiveness of masks, refusing to be photographed with a mask on until his trip to Walter Reed Medical Center in early July, more than four months into the pandemic.

In April 2020, Trump stressed that while masks were being recommended by the nation's leading public health agencies, the safety measure should be voluntary and added that he would be opting out.

"The CDC. is advising the use of non-medical cloth face covering as an additional voluntary public health measure. So it's voluntary. You don't have to do it. They suggested for a period of time, but this is voluntary. I don't think I'm going to be doing it," the former president said from the White House on April 3, 2020.

Trump also repeatedly mocked his opponent and then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for wearing one, saying that Biden was wearing a mask "every time you see him," which Trump argued was unnecessary when there were other measures, like social distancing and testing, in place.

Giroir said that despite the lack of masks in the White House, he believes the coronavirus task force relayed the best COVID-19 information to the president, his team and the public.

"The taskforce, particularly under the vice president [Mike Pence], always gave what we believed was the best public health information," Giroir said. "Sometimes that changed because the information changed—as you see the information and the data changing with the current administration—but I do believe that we provided the best evidence, with some of the caveats I already said."

He continued, "Mask-wearing—clearly that's something we wanted to promote more and I believe senior members of the administration could have done more for that, but pretty much they followed the advice that we gave them."

While Giroir has been at odds with Biden over other COVID-related issues in the past, the former assistant secretary of health praised the current administration on Friday for their investment in rapid COVID-19 tests.

On Wednesday, the White House announced the federal government was investing another $1 billion in rapid tests to quadruple supply by December. The Biden administration also invested $2 billion in tests last month.

"[The Trump administration] worked as hard as we could to develop rapid testing and the first one was really the BinaxNOW card test, that lateral-flow antigen test, and we bought the entire U.S. production for many, many months," Giroir said.

"These rapid tests are very good, they can be done at home, they're very inexpensive. We know that if you do them, it will pick out those people who are likely to transmit the virus, so those people who are infectious," the former testing czar added. "I think this is a good move from the Biden administration."

He called on state governments to help the federal government by buying more rapid tests to put on shelves and making them more widely available.

The Biden administration estimates that there will be a monthly supply of 200 million rapid at-home tests by December as it ramps up production.