Title xlii. to remember, that s the trump era covid policy that allows u.s. border officials to turn migrants along the southern border or their home countries. when the president was asked about this today, he seemed to conflate title xlii with the federal mask mandate battle. watch. no, what i m considering is continuing to hear from my first of all, there s going to be an appeal by the justice department because there s a matter of principle. we want to be able to be in a position where if in fact it is strongly concluded by the scientists that we need title xlii that we would be able to do that. but there has been no decision on extending title xlii. now, to be fair, the president later clarified that then he was talking about the mask mandate. but more on why this conflation may have political ramifications
what about we can t cry over what s happening. i m sorry, go ahead. i m sorry to interrupt you, sir. i want to switch gears a bit and ask about your reaction to the mask mandate battle in your state of texas. you have governor abbot who has tested for covid. he s negative after being positive last week. he s banned all mask mandates. local legislatures, school officials are pushing back. courts are now getting involved. is it possible for texas to get past the politics of masks in order to keep people safe? we need to. we need real leadership. he needs to comes to terms with the fact that masks save lives. the vaccinations help save lives. it helped him. we need to encourage all texans to get their vaccination as soon as possible and to wear masks. we need to allow if he doesn t want to take leadership