So.

CNN has just made a pretty big admission: Masks don’t work.

On Sunday, aware that his supporters were outside Walter Reed Hospital cheering him on, the president donned a mask and, with masked Secret Service agents, did a brief drive-by in the presidential limousine so he could thank them by way of a wave.

And the reaction from CNN?

Demanded CNN’s Ana Cabrera of Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller: “How is this ‘very safe’ and ‘very responsible’?”

And on the CNN website, a close-up of the masked president waving from the back of his limousine was published with this headline by CNN’s Chris Cillizza:

Donald Trump’s Walter Reed drive-by reveals his true nature

(CNN) Donald Trump’s unannounced — and wildly unnecessary — drive-by of his supporters outside Walter Reed medical center on Sunday night aptly summed up his presidency to date: An entirely self-focused political (and PR) stunt with little regard for the impacts on people other than himself.

That’s the only logical explanation for the decision by the President of the United States to task two Secret Service agents with driving him by supporters who had gathered outside the hospital to show their support for him as he continues to battle Covid-19.

Cillizza goes on to quote a Dr. James Phillips, “who works at Walter Reed as an emergency physician.” Phillips attacked the drive-by as “political theater” that “put their (the Secret Service agents driving him) lives at risk.”

Well aside from the fact that the agents are part of the Secret Service detail that has been around the president continuously since his virus diagnosis — at the White House, on Marine One, in his motorcade from the helicopter to the hospital entrance not to mention around the clock in the hospital’s presidential suite?

What Cabrera and Cillizza are now saying is — masks don’t work. Or otherwise a ride in the presidential limousine with all the occupants wearing masks would be safe precisely because they are wearing masks.

This is another instance of Trump Derangement Syndrome at CNN. Recall the Wall Street Journal’s Holman Jenkins writing this back in July of this year:

Seemingly effortlessly, though, he (Trump) has incited people and institutions that do have something to lose to wreck their own reputations: The FBI, CNN, our universities, etc.

Indeed.

Let’s recall that only last month CNN’s Jim Acosta interviewed a maskless Trump supporter at a Trump Michigan rally. Mediaite reported it this way, bold print supplied:

On Thursday night, Acosta asked several attendees of Trump’s Freeland, Michigan rally why they weren’t wearing masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections, even after the revelation that Trump knew in early February that the virus was much more deadly than the seasonal flu, yet continued to “downplay” the threat.

“Why are you guys not wearing masks?” Acosta asked an attendee.

“I have one with me, it’s my prerogative,” the man answered.

“But why not wear one and stay safe?” the masked correspondent asked.

“Well I have a hard time understanding people when they talk, so that’s why I don’t wear ’em,” the man answered. Protective masks cover the mouth and nose, which are not auditory organs in humans.

“You can hear me right now?” Acosta asked, to which the man replied “I can hear you.”

The irony here is thick. In June NewsBusters was reporting this of CNN’s White House correspondents Acosta and Kaitlan Collins, bold print supplied:

Delivering a report from the White House on Friday’s edition of The Situation Room, CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta scolded White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany for saying that she would not be wearing a mask at President Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ironically, as Acosta criticized McEnany, who described the decision to wear a mask as a “personal choice,” the CNN reporter apparently made the same “personal choice,” as he was not wearing a mask.

This is hardly the first time the media have demonstrated hypocrisy on the use of masks. Just last month, Acosta’s CNN colleague Kaitlan Collins scolded President Trump for not wearing a mask as he spoke to reporters outside. Later that day, Collins was caught ripping off her mask as soon as the White House press briefing, which took place indoors, came to a conclusion; indicating that she only saw wearing a mask as a photo-op.

And just yesterday, the self-same Collins, she who was caught on camera removing her mask at the White House as soon as a briefing was ended, makes bold to say this: “The White House thinks the rules do not apply to them” when it comes to wearing a mask. Clearly, Collins doesn’t think they apply to her either.

So which is it?

On the one hand, CNNers are insisting that safety requires wearing a mask. But when the president does exactly what CNN demands and wears a mask — he is attacked for taking a short ride in an enclosed limo surrounded — as usual — by mask-wearing Secret Service agents.

Which means Cabrera and Cilizza are really saying wearing masks is not safe.

And not to go unnoticed? Go back to that back and forth between Jim Acosta and that maskless Trump supporter:

ACOSTA: “But why not wear one and stay safe?” the masked correspondent asked.

TRUMP SUPPORTER: “Well I have a hard time understanding people when they talk, so that’s why I don’t wear ’em,” the man answered. Protective masks cover the mouth and nose, which are not auditory organs in humans.

“You can hear me right now?” Acosta asked, to which the man replied “I can hear you.”

So wearing a mask when one speaks doesn’t affect hearing the mask wearer. Now take a look at that exchange with Ana Cabrera. Notice anything? That’s right, she isn’t wearing a mask — and her colleague Jim Acosta has made it perfectly plain that wearing a mask doesn’t affect hearing the person wearing the mask. Yet there sits a CNN anchor, criticizing the president for his masked short drive-by — while she herself sits in a television studio or elsewhere … not wearing a mask.

This is CNN.