During a September 16, 2020 town hall hosted by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Trump attacked Biden and Democrats for not passing a mask mandate. Biden held no office, and Democrats only had control of the US House of Representatives.

He went on to describe how people don’t like wearing masks:

TRUMP: Well, I do wear them when I have to and when I’m in hospitals and other locations. But I will say this. They said at the Democrat convention they’re going to do a national mandate. They never did it, because they’ve checked out and they didn’t do it.

And a good question is, you ask why Joe Biden — they said we’re going to do a national mandate on masks.

 

STEPHANOPOULOS: He’s called on all governors to have them. There’s a state responsibility…

 

TRUMP: Well no, but he didn’t do it. I mean, he never did it. Now there is by the way, a lot of people don’t want to wear masks. There are a lot of people think that masks are not good. And there are a lot of people that as an example you have…

 

STEPHANOPOULOS: Who are those people?

 

TRUMP: I’ll tell you who those people are — waiters. They come over and they serve you, and they have a mask. And I saw it the other day where they were serving me, and they’re playing with the mask…I’m not blaming them…I’m just saying what happens. They’re playing with the mask, so the mask is over, and they’re touching it, and then they’re touching the plate. That can’t be good.

During the same interview, Trump claimed that herd immunity, “like herd mentality,” meant that COVID-19 would disappear quickly even without a vaccine.

On the day of the town hall, the United States totaled 6,855,605 cases and 201,351 deaths.

ABC News – Trump’s ABC News town hall: Full transcript
Business Insider – Trump criticizes Biden at town hall for not issuing a national mask mandate — but Biden as a candidate has no authority to do so
Worldometer – Coronavirus, United States