Karen Pence tried to defend her homophobic husband Mike for not wearing a coronavirus mask and it backfired spectacularly
Vice President Mike Pence failed to wear a mask while speaking with coronavirus patients.
Karen Pence, the wife of Mike Pence, has tried to defend her husband for not wearing a coronavirus mask, but it backfired spectacularly.
Pence, who is well known for his anti-LGBT+ views, came under fire this week when he visited the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and ignored the hospital’s instruction that all visitors wear masks.
The Mayo Clinic defended itself and insisted that they told Pence in advance of his visit that they had a mask-wearing policy in place.
Now, Pence’s wife Karen has entered the fray in an effort to save her husband’s reputation – and insisted he knew nothing about the hospital’s requirement to wear a mask.
Mike Pence only found out about the coronavirus mask policy after he left the hospital, his wife said.
Speaking on Fox & Friends on April 30, Karen said: “As our medical experts have told us, wearing a mask prevents you from spreading disease. And knowing he doesn’t have COVID-19, he didn’t wear one.”
She continued: “It was actually after he left Mayo Clinic that he found out they had a policy of asking everyone to wear a mask.
“So someone who’s worked on this whole task force for over two months is not someone who would have done anything to offend anyone or hurt anyone or scare anyone,” she added.
It was actually after he left Mayo Clinic that he found out they had a policy of asking everyone to wear a mask.
But her defence doesn’t quite add up. The Mayo Clinic has insisted in a since-deleted tweet that they “informed” Pence of the policy “prior to his arrival”.
This has been backed up by Voice of America reporter Steve Herman, who said he and others who travelled to the Mayo Clinic with Pence were told to wear masks.
Cloth masks have been recommended in the United States for the last month.
“All of us who traveled with him were notified by the office of vice president the day before the trip that wearing of masks was required by the Mayo Clinic and to prepare accordingly,” he wrote on Twitter.
Remarkably, Herman was subsequently told by the White House Correspondents’ Association that he had been banned from flying on Pence’s official plane.
Pence’s office told Herman he had violated an off-the-record agreement by making the rules of the visit public. The vice president’s office claimed that they do not make these rules public for security purposes.
The defence is even more unbelievable when you consider the fact that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommended people wear cloth masks in public an entire month ago.
So Mike Pence’s refusal to wear masks – and his wife’s insistence that he knew nothing about the guidelines – don’t exactly add up.
