Mike Pence did not have any regrets about the Trump administration's approach to the COVID-19 pandemic but told Newsmax he "wasn't surprised" that President Joe Biden messed it up.
During a Thursday interview on "The Record With Greta Van Susteren," Pence attributed Biden's decision to appoint Dr. Anthony Fauci as White House chief medical adviser as a catalyst for draconian lockdown measures.
"With the advent of the Biden administration, when they essentially put Dr. Fauci in charge, I wasn't surprised that all the focus was placed on vaccines and not on other countermeasures, or not on focusing on opening up the economy the way we had," he said.
Pence, who led the White House COVID task force under then-President Donald Trump, acknowledged Fauci's significant contributions early on but said he quickly became a partisan advocate for the left's policies.
Fauci "became a voice for Democrat governors around the country to take what were temporary solutions in the spring of 2020 and engage in incomprehensible lockdowns of businesses and schools around the country, and I think that's been unfortunate."
The former vice president's comments reinforced those he made last month on NBC News while promoting his book, "So Help Me God," where he argued that Biden empowered Fauci to leave "his lane" and voice policy decisions.
"I think the American people recoiled at that approach. And sadly, the Biden administration lost more Americans in their first year with COVID than we did in our first year, a year where we had none of the tools, few supplies, no testing, ultimately no medicines until the end," Pence told NBC's "Meet the Press."
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