NH Gov. Sununu will wear a mask when meeting with President Trump ahead of Portsmouth rally

• New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu will wear a mask when he meets with President Trump ahead of Friday's rally in Portsmouth, the governor's campaign spokesman told Insider.
• Sununu, a Republican in his second term, has said he will skip the rally out of a commitment to avoid all large gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Trump has so far refused to wear a mask in public, although he claimed he would be open to it in an interview with a reporter for local TV news affiliate.
• He also said he has worn one in private, and liked how he "looked like the Lone Ranger."
• "From the very beginning, the Governor has said he plans to avoid large gatherings of people so long as COVID is still around," Sununu campaign spokesman Ben Vihstadt wrote in a message to Insider.
• "He intends to greet the President of the United States at the Airport — as he has for every other Presidential visit — and then depart ahead of the rally."
• "He will be wearing a mask."

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu plans on skipping President Donald Trump's rally in the Granite State Friday, but he says he will be wearing a mask when he meets with the president beforehand.

"From the very beginning, the Governor has said he plans to avoid large gatherings of people so long as COVID is still around," Sununu campaign spokesman Ben Vihstadt wrote in a message to Insider. "He intends to greet the President of the United States at the Airport — as he has for every other Presidential visit — and then depart ahead of the rally.

"He will be wearing a mask."

Trump has tacitly endorsed the use of masks when social distancing is not possible, but he has yet to wear one in public.

In a recent interview for local TV news affiliates, Trump claimed he has worn a mask in private, and that he liked how he "looked like the Lone Ranger."

Masks were provided at his rally in Tulsa, Okla., an airport hanger in Wisconsin as well as at his Fourth of July event at Mount Rushmore, but they were not mandatory for those in attendance. Reporters at each visit observed very few attendees wearing any sort of face covering, despite the Trump administration's own CDC guidance.

Sununu has threaded the needle as a Republican in a swing state when it comes to his relationship with the president.

A wave of anti-Trump sentiment as part of the "blue wave" in the midterms wiped out GOP majorities in both chambers of the New Hampshire Legislature and elected Democrats to both of the state's House seats, but Sununu was able to secure reelection thanks, in part, to ticket splitting.

Sununu has had one of the highest approval ratings for any governor in the country during his first two terms, and 86% of Granite Staters approve of his handling of the coronavirus.

"Since the outset of this pandemic, the Governor has not stopped or prevented large gatherings of people peacefully assembling. Black Lives Matter marches — which he supports — to protests on the State House lawn regarding COVID restrictions, have all proceeded as planned and uninterrupted," Vihstadt told Insider.

"Ahead of each gathering, the Governor urged participants to wear masks and practice social distancing. Every large gathering has been, and will continue to be, treated the same."