Austin mayor says Gov. Abbott made ‘big mistake’ with earlier refusal to mandate masks

Austin Mayor Steve Adler on Tuesday criticized Gov. Greg Abbott for blocking municipalities across Texas from enforcing mandatory mask orders earlier in the coronavirus pandemic.

But the mayor also praised the governor for showing a greater willingness to encourage the use of face coverings than his fellow Republican state executives.

“The governor effectively prevented us from mandating masking, which I think was a really big mistake,” Adler, a Democrat, told POLITICO Playbook in a virtual interview.

Texas is among several states across the South and West — including Arizona, California and Florida — to have reported soaring rates of Covid-19 infections in recent weeks, contributing to a resurgence of the disease in the United States and record daily caseloads.

Those spikes have forced many governors to halt their plans for economic reopenings or revert to more stringent mitigation measures to curb the spread of the virus.

Abbott took over Texas’ coronavirus response from local officials in late March and began lifting restrictions in May.

But in June, amid the wave of new cases, the governor froze the state’s reopening and backed down on his order banning cities and counties from requiring residents to wear face coverings in public.

Abbott also halted elective surgeries in some counties, shuttered the state’s bars and placed new restrictions on other businesses he said were linked to the coronavirus’ comeback in Texas.

Earlier this month, Abbott acquiesced to a statewide mask mandate, demanding that residents in counties with more than 20 Covid-19 cases cover their faces when social distancing is not possible.

Adler remarked Tuesday that, “in some respects, my governor has been better than many in red states in that he has always indicated that people should be wearing masks.”

The mayor acknowledged Abbott has “always advocated” mask use, even when not enforcing it, and “was willing to be photographed early wearing a mask.”

But Adler also argued “there’s a big difference between recommending that somebody wear a mask and making it mandatory. It sends an entirely different message.”

Leading Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have endorsed the idea of a national mask mandate to help quell the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has been reluctant to wear a mask despite bipartisan pressure to do so — sporting a face covering in public for the first time Saturday during a visit to Walter Reed National Medical Center.

Adler indicated Tuesday that “messaging coming out of Washington, D.C.” minimizing the outbreak’s threat was detrimental to his city’s efforts to contain the virus.

“The suggestions still that, ‘The virus is a hoax,’ and ‘It’s not serious,’ and ‘It’s going away,’ and ‘Masks may be recommended, but not required.’ … We’re dealing with that even here in Austin,” Adler said.

“But generally, we have a community that is stepping up to the plate,” he added. “And I just hope we can sustain that.”