CEOs in Iowa who came to meet Pence in masks were told to remove them
Mike Pence was unmasked in Iowa on Friday, attending two events without covering his face, even though public health officials say masks slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus and one of the vice president’s aides tested positive for Covid-19 just before he departed Washington.
Two days later, the recklessness of that behavior came into sharper focus as Bloomberg News reported that Pence had decided to self-isolate at his home in Washington over the weekend — skipping a White House meeting with military leaders on Saturday — because his press secretary, Katie Miller, had tested positive for the virus on Friday. Miller did not accompany Pence to Iowa, but if his exposure to her before the trip made his self-isolation necessary the next day, that made his decision to spend Friday meeting at least 19 officials, food industry executives and religious leaders in Iowa, unmasked, all the more questionable.
What’s more, a Des Moines Register live stream of the second event Pence attended on Friday, a roundtable discussion with food industry leaders at Hy-Vee corporate headquarters in West Des Moines, showed that all five of the invited guests arrived wearing masks but were asked to remove them shortly before the vice president joined them on stage. [Continue reading…]