In response to Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to ignore CDC guidelines and carry on with the scheduled Vice Presidential Debate, Protect Our Care’s Coronavirus War Room Director Zac Petkanas released the following statement:
“Since day one of this crisis, Vice President Pence has played a key role in implementing Donald Trump’s failed pandemic response that has allowed more than 210,000 Americans to die, more than 7.5 million to become infected and more than 62 million to file for unemployment.
“Instead of pushing Trump to take decisive action, Pence carried out his boss’ strategy of downplaying the danger, undermining experts, discouraging Americans to wear masks and rushing states to reopen.
“Now, Pence is endangering even more people by moving ahead with an in-person debate tonight despite his exposure to a virus currently raging through the White House, infecting individuals at events he’s attended and hospitalizing President Trump.
“If that wasn’t bad enough, his team has fought and even mocked the additional mitigation efforts that the debate commission and Biden-Harris team have asked for to keep everyone safe.
“Let’s be clear: according to the CDC’s own guidelines, Vice President Pence should be in quarantine, not a debate stage.
“However, it should come as no surprise that Trump’s second in command is willing to put everyone at the debate site at risk of this deadly disease. This selfish, irresponsible behavior is exactly what we’ve come to expect from this White House.”