Vice President Mike Pence continued to rip some media networks for their portrayal of the rising numbers of coronavirus cases.
During a Wednesday one-on-one interview with Fox Business’ “Making Money with Charles Payne,” Pence blasted some networks that “like to put up maps with lots of red states" indicating a surge in virus cases.
“The reality is, as of this morning, there are only 11 counties in America that are seeing accelerating new cases and only about 2% of the counties in this country are seeing any significant increases in cases at all,” the vice president said. “The truth is now that all 50 states and our territories are reopening, we are proving we can do that in a safe and responsible way.”
He said cities in Texas and Florida that are reporting an increase in virus cases are “focusing on vulnerable populations” like nursing homes, prisons and meat packing plants.
He said that combined with a “massive increase in testing” across the country is creating an impression that there is a reason to be concerned. He said that isn’t the case.
“The reality is because of the strong leadership of President Donald Trump, because the American people embraced those mitigation efforts, because of the recovery efforts that we secured from Congress and because states across the country are responsibly reopening, we are getting there,” he said. “We are getting there as a nation and every single day we are one step closer to putting the coronavirus in the past.”
He said more than half the states are stable in the number of cases they are reporting or seeing a decline in cases.
He said the U.S. is averaging roughly 20,000 new cases a day this month, which is a decrease from prior months. Pence also said hospitalizations are down and so are fatality rates.
“We are making real progress,” he said. “We are saving lives. We have slowed the spread. We have flattened the curve.”
Pence said if hospitalization rates do increase as cities reopen, the country is much more prepared than it was several months ago.
He said the efforts to producing 110,000 ventilators in less than 100 days are underway as officials work to backfill the national stockpile.
In discussing a proposed stimulus bill, he said the focus will be on making sure “families are able to get through this coronavirus pandemic.”
He said Trump has made it clear that any new stimulus bill needs to contain pro-growth policies to help Americans and businesses. He said the president wants to see a payroll tax cut that will “put money in the pockets of working Americans.”
He said all 50 states are responsibly reopening and the economy is “coming back strong.”
“There are real human costs to the kind of shutdown and lockdown that we went through,” he said. “We are going to keep America moving forward and we are going to open up America again.”
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