On his way out of today’s press briefing, and just before he masked up, Governor Phil Murphy offered his views on masks in the middle of an ongoing Marvel Comics-like collision between President Donald J. Trump and challenger Joe Biden.

Murphy sides with Biden, of course.

“I have become a rabid believer in face coverings as a game changer,” the New Jersey Governor said.

He made his comment at the War Memorial against this back drop, as reported by USA Today:

President Donald Trump called wearing a face mask “politically correct” on Tuesday, while former vice president Joe Biden called Trump “a fool” for demeaning them, highlighting the politicization that has emerged around face masks during the coronavirus pandemic.  

On Tuesday, during a news conference in the Rose Garden, Trump asked a reporter, “Can you take it off, because I cannot hear you,” referencing the face mask.

“I’ll just speak louder, sir,” the reporter responded.

“Ok, you want to be politically correct. Go ahead,” Trump replied. The reporter refused to take the mask off. 

…During Biden’s first in-person interview since the coronavirus pandemic on CNN, Biden criticized Trump’s rhetoric surrounding masks, saying “every leading doc in the world is saying we should wear a mask when you’re in a crowd.”

He continued that Trump is “a fool, an absolute fool to be talking that way,” and that his commentary is “macho stuff.”

“[I]t costs people’s lives. It’s costing people’s lives,” Biden continued, saying this is “stoking deaths.”