President Joe Biden went fanatic for 30 seconds looking for his face mask before an outdoor rally in Georgia on Thursday. He had actually left his mask in his pocket but had forgotten and started looking for it desperately and even said that he would be "in trouble" without it despite being fully vaccinated.
Footage from drive-in event in Duluth, which also marked his 100th day in office, showed Biden immediately hunting for his missing mask after arriving at his podium. The video has since gone viral. However, he finally calmed down when he realized that the mask was not missing but in the pocket of his trousers.
Biden Forgets Again
"Where is my mask? Looking for my mask, I'm in trouble," the commander-in-chief said as he searched the podium in Duluth, delaying his departure. "I can't find my mask!" he could be heard saying, initially drowned out by the loud welcome music of Jackie Wilson's Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher and Higher."
It was the second time this week that Biden said he was "gonna be in trouble." Not only the President, seeing him panic, even the first lady Jill Biden joined him in his desperate search as he repeated his plea, taking the same folder to flick through and also bending down to look on the floor.
The search went on for some time and even the first lady failed to locate it. The incident happened just before Biden, who marked his 100th day in office on Thursday, was readying to unveil his $4 trillion infrastructure proposal designed to fix the country's crumbling highways and bridges.
Finally Found
Biden was holding a binder and started fumbling through it but it didn't help. Seeing the President going berserk about his misplaced mask, two aides came rushing with a spare mask but he them finally managed to locate it, which had been in his suit-pant pocket all along.
He held it aloft to the crowd and much to his own relief. Users of social networks quickly wondered why the president would need a mask, if he is properly vaccinated and was outside any building. "Vaccinated, outdoors, socially estranged ... and Biden is still looking for his mask," tweeted one of them.
"Didn't Biden just announce that if you're fully vaccinated and outdoors there's no need for a mask? So why is he still wearing one, and he's frantically searching for it?" wrote another other.
"This video needs Veep credits..." Nathan Brand joked while tweeting out footage of the farcical moment. Commentator Lori Lynne called it "just embarrassing," saying the president was "a vaccinated man MILES from another person."
Although Biden has been fully vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still advises those who have gotten the shot to keep wearing masks if they attend an outdoor event with crowds of people, like concerts or sporting events.
However, Biden soon took off the mask for the speech after he was introduced on the podium since he was at quite a safe distance from others. In an NBC interview that aired Friday, Biden said he planned to still wear masks outside despite new guidance from the CDC, calling it a "patriotic responsibility."
