Pelosi says Trump, Pence should be wearing masks to 'set an example'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence should be wearing masks to "set an example" and protect others against COVID-19.

"They don't wear a mask, why not? Other people should so they should set an example," Pelosi said at a press conference. "They have doctors around them all the time to administer to their very sneeze but everybody else doesn't have that so it's nothing that has any example to it that is good for stopping the spread of this. As you know, many of the people dying are older."

Pelosi, who has been photographed wearing a mask around Capitol Hill, told reporters that her "great fear" is what adults bring home to their children.

"The mask is not to protect you," she said. "The mask is protect other people so when you don't wear the mask, what are you saying? 'I don't care about you but I hope you are wearing a mask and care about me.' The masks are very, very important; space, very, very important."

Trump hasn't worn a mask at events inside or outside of the White House. Pence did not wear a mask when he visited the Mayo clinic last month but later said he should have worn one. Pence did wear a mask on April 30 when visiting a General Motors plant. 

Trump told Fox News last week that he and Pence would be careful during the pandemic because Pelosi is second in the presidential line of succession, according to the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.

"It's never going to happen. We'll keep our vice president healthy and I'll stay healthy – never going to happen," Trump said, referring to a Pelosi presidency. "She would be a disaster. Look, Nancy Pelosi's a disaster."

Trump also wrote on Twitter that he and Pence "must be very careful" because "crazy Nancy would be a total disaster.”