Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged on Sunday that he should’ve worn a protective mask last Thursday when he visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
“I didn’t think it was necessary, but I should have worn a mask at the Mayo Clinic,” Pence said during a virtual Fox News town hall at the Lincoln Memorial with President Donald Trump.
The vice president pointed out that he wore a mask as he was touring the General Motors Plant in Kokomo, Indiana the day after his visit to the clinic.
Pence came under fire last week after photos of him bare-faced at the clinic, which has a policy requiring everyone inside the facility to wear masks amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Second Lady Karen Pence said several days later that her husband did not feel it was necessary to wear a mask because he had tested negative for COVID-19.
She also claimed the vice president was unaware of the policy before his visit.
However, the Mayo Clinic said it had, in fact, informed the vice president of its requirement beforehand.
“Mayo shared the masking policy with the VP’s office,” a spokesperson for the clinic said.
Watch Pence below:
Pence: "I didn't think it was necessary, but I should've worn a mask at the Mayo Clinic." pic.twitter.com/2KCezCTvUU
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 4, 2020
Maybe he was still abiding by the White House guidelines from a few weeks ago. You know, the ones that said:
See? That wan’t so hard was it? Doesn’t it feel good to the truth?
Trump is not going to get any better…in ANY way…
Look for someone as bad as Pence to look far more normal going forward.
I don’t think it was necessary for him to wear a mask.
In fact, both he and dotard should regularly go to local Covid-19 wards to check up on patients there, with no PPE, because it’s just a flu.
pence: Now that the negative backlash has gotten so huge I think perhaps I should have done the right thing for everybody on that visit instead of being such an asshole. Who could have predicted… otoh I’ve always been a clueless dumbass and I’ve risen in the fascist cult accordingly, so there’s that.