The Washington Post editorial board has made crystal clear what it thinks of Vice President Mike Pence’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in his role leading the White House’s task force tackling the public health crisis.
“Mike Pence is a case study in irresponsibility,” the newspaper’s board headlined a column published Wednesday. The piece criticizes Pence’s widely condemned Tuesday op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, in which he declared that the United States is “winning the fight against the invisible enemy.”
COVID-19 has killed more than 119,000 people nationwide, and multiple states are now registering record numbers of new infections after easing their stay-at-home orders aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.
The Post’s board noted how handbooks for public health crises emphasize the importance of transparency and the need for officials to maintain public trust.
“They must not ‘over-reassure’ and should be candid about risks and unexpected events,” the board wrote, noting some of the many ways in which Pence and President Donald Trump have not done that.
“The pandemic is still raging,” it warned. “Try as they might to spin a recovery story, Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump destroy their own credibility by ignoring reality. The American people know this is not ‘cause for celebration.’”
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