The stock market is having its worst week since 2008. Officials are scrambling to trace the first US case of coronavirus not linked to travel. And the man in charge of the country’s response to the virus is heading to Florida to raise money for the Republican Party.
Vice President Mike Pence is billed as a “special guest” at a fundraiser for the Florida Republican delegation on Friday. He will also be briefing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, on coronavirus while he’s there – the only event open to media coverage.
Two days ago, President Donald Trump announced he would run point on the administration’s response to the coronavirus as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned it was not a matter of if, but when, the virus would spread in the US.
Since then, Pence has reached out to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress. He spoke to an array of bipartisan governors as well, including Govs. Larry Hogan, R-Maryland, Andrew Cuomo, D-New York, Greg Abbott, R-Texas, Pete Rickets, R-Nebraska, Jay Inslee, D-Washington, and Gavin Newsom, D-California.
On Thursday, Pence led a coronavirus task force meeting and visited the Secretary’s Operation Center at Health and Human Services.
The Florida trip, which was scheduled before Pence’s new role was announced, was originally centered around fundraising, including a fundraiser on Longboat Key to raise money for the National Republican Congressional Committee. He is also scheduled to speak at a Club for Growth economic conference in West Palm Beach.
But his office, perhaps aware that given his new role Pence could face criticism for the fundraising, added a “Florida coronavirus response meeting” to his schedule the day before Pence left Washington where he will brief DeSantis.
Katie Miller, the vice president’s press secretary, said Pence will also host a daily coronavirus task force meeting from Florida on Friday and Saturday from Washington.
Pence’s public health record has already been called into question since the President announced the vice president’s new role. As governor of Indiana, he faced an HIV outbreak in the state in 2014.
One study that ran in The Lancet medical journal in 2018 found that if Pence had acted sooner, an earlier public health response could have substantially reduced the total number of HIV infections.
What was needed was a needle-exchange program, which was strongly recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an effective way of preventing transmission of disease among drug users. But was illegal under Indiana state law and initially opposed by Pence.
On Thursday, the vice president defended himself on Fox News, saying he “worked the problem early in the year from a law enforcement standpoint, from a health standpoint.”
“I don’t believe in needle exchanges as a way to combat drug abuse but in this case we came to the conclusion that we had a public health emergency and so I took executive action to make a limited needle exchange available,” Pence said.
“We got all of those people treated, everyone got support and help, and we moved forward and the community recovered,” he added.
CNN’s Jen Christensen contributed to this report.
