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On the evening of Jan. 20, 2021, a video of U.S. President Joe Biden listening to a performance by musician Yo-Yo Ma at the Lincoln Memorial while not wearing a face mask was widely circulated on social media, along with the claim that the newly sworn-in president was acting hypocritically by violating a new executive order on mask use that he had signed just hours earlier. Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative Turning Point USA, for instance, shared the video with the caption: Does Joe Biden’s new executive order mandating masks on federal property not apply to Joe Biden while he’s on federal property? Because here he is at the Lincoln Memorial with no mask just hours after signing it. This is a bad-faith argument that appears to be based on a cherry-picked moment and a willful misunderstanding of Biden's new mask policy. Shortly after Biden was sworn into office, he signed several executive orders, one of which dealt with mask use on federal properties. While Kirk's tweet, as well as articles from Fox News and the New York Post, may lead people to believe that Biden's new policy requires the use of face masks at all times by all people in all situations without exception, that is not what Biden's executive order states. Biden's executive order says that people in federal buildings must comply with the CDC's public safety guidelines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The executive order reads: The CDC's mask guidelines encourage mask use in most instances, but the agency also notes a number of exceptions to that rule. For instance, mask use is more important when a person is indoors, as opposed to outdoors. In the video above, Biden is outdoors. The CDC also notes that masks are more important when a person is in a crowded room. In the video above, Biden is largely by himself, standing next to one person who appears to be an appropriate 6 feet away. The CDC writes: It should also be noted that Biden's executive order places the responsibility of enforcing rules related to mask use on the heads of various federal agencies. The executive order gives the heads of these agencies some leeway on how to best implement the CDC's guidelines and to decide if any exceptions need to be made: Lincoln Memorial is administered by the National Park Service. As of this writing, the National Park Service has not criticized Biden for violating its guidelines. We've reached out to the National Parks Service, the White House, and the CDC for more information, and will update this article accordingly. The video of Biden listening to a performance by Ma originated with a C-SPAN broadcast that was shared to Twitter by reporter Timothy Burke. In that posting, Burke noted that Biden wore a mask before the performance began and put his mask back on immediately after. Here's the full video: While this video truly shows Biden momentarily without a mask on, this was not in violation of his new mask policy. Furthermore, this video shows a single moment from the Celebrate America event. During most of the event, especially when indoors, Biden was wearing a mask, as illustrated in the photograph at the top of this article.
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