Video shows participants removing masks ahead of Pence event

Participants at a food supply roundtable convened by Vice President Mike Pence in Iowa on May 8 removed their face masks before Pence arrived, according to video from the event posted online.
The session at the West Des Moines headquarters of Hy-Vee grocery stores came hours after Pence's press secretary tested positive for coronavirus, delaying his flight to Iowa and prompting a scramble inside the White House to identify people who also could have been exposed.
In the video, which was streamed by the Des Moines Register and first posted by The Intercept, executives from Mountaire Farms, Smithfield, Kroger and Tyson Foods remove their face coverings after an unidentified person emerged from backstage and motioned removing a mask.
None of the companies represented immediately responded to a CNN request for comment.
A White House official told CNN the vice president's advance staff "takes precautions to keep round table participants distanced at at least six feet — meaning you don't need to wear a mask based on CDC guidance — so to allow for them to not wear masks and have a more engaging dialogue."
"Participants, who have their temp taken and are screened by physicians, are always more than welcome to do whatever they'd like," the official said.

#coronavirus #CNN #News

78 comments

  1. He is desperate to get the economy back but we are actually at the mercy of the virus, regardless of what we want…

    1. Precisely what Dr. Fauci has been saying all along: we don’t make the timeline… the virus does.

    2. @Peter Brazukas Trump cant comprehend a problem that he cant disregard or pay off. Hopefully and I am praying this happens, he will get butthurt enough to just leave. I cant imagine that the republicans who see that they are losing ground and are down in the polls to Biden will want to go down with the trumptanic. The question is how low are they willing to go before they say to themselves “man this trump thing aint working out”

    3. The reason why the Trump administration scrapped the detailed reopening guide from the CDC and put a muzzle on Dr, Fauci is
      because none of the states currently meet all the guidelines. So these states are now being guided by a secret plan from FEMA. Mark my words, every single state in the U.S. will reopen their economy by the
      end of May regardless of how many COVID-19 cases or deaths there are or
      whether they have done enough testing in any particular state. Don’t matter if it’s a Republican or Democrat run state. So governors on both sides of the aisle are in on this agenda not just the GOP. Public school nationwide will reopen in the Fall.

      How do I know this? It’s because from the start of this pandemic, Bill
      Gates said to shut down the nation for 6 to 10 weeks then reopen the economy by the end of May 2020 and open public schools in the Fall. Thus, all governors will blindly reopen their governments because there are no guidelines in place. Trump will continue to pressure all governors to reopen just as he recently pressured the governor of Virginia, the only state with a stay-at-home order that extends beyond May, to comply. While this is still a theory, time will soon tell.

  2. And yet he freaks out when someone around him tested positive and everyone around him gets tested daily

    1. And he doesn’t understand that, yes, you don’t have it. And then yes, you do have it. And its one day to the next day..yes that’s how it works. Not that testing doesn’t work. Its literally an example of a working test (unless false positive), this logic however, alludes him.

    1. @d bc Well, if the press didn’t constantly attack him maybe the country could move forward together.

    2. @john abbot Johnny your tin foil hat is picking up some fuzzy signals. Tell the nice man in the white coat to turn off CNN, straighten the hat & let him give you your meds.The mean orange man can’t hurt you.

    3. @winter garden Because most other countries don’t politicize everything the way Republicans do here. In Brazil it’s happening also, that wacko President Bolsanaro is calling it a hoax, and of course he’s not social distancing either. You just can’t fix stupid.

    4. @Daniel Doucet I keep hearing this buzzing in my head , then a voice saying “trump is a conman” it keeps repeating that…

    5. @T. Noel Trudell-Kays if trump wasn’t the biggest, most corrupt ahole ever to be president, then the press wouldn’t constantly attack him.

      let;s be clear- trump deliberately picks fights with the press and others because he knows the right leaning capitalist press will cover it extensively and not cover the many other horrible things he dies.

      yeah, it’s the press’s fault for being duped, but it’s also trump’s fault for doing it.

  3. Hey Jared how much lysol and Clorox you have in your stock pile ya’ll going to need it in the west wing ๐Ÿ›ข๐Ÿ’ก๐Ÿ’‰

  4. “People it’s perfectly fine to protect yourselves and protect others. No one in the White House knows what to do exactly. Everyone is on a different page about this pandemic. It’s ridiculous the guests removed their masks only because some airhead told them to.”

    1. @Real Deal How recent is recent given it can take some days for the virus to show up in tests after you initially catch it? Tests are at best 95% accurate. Do millions of tests and how many fails is that?

    2. Levi 1 TRUMP downplayed COVID at the start. Next, he got on board with the CDC and NIH by treating COVID seriously. Now, he is calling for PROTEST against the STAY-AT-HOME. WTF!!!

    3. Captain Win , the Covid 19 PCR test is actually only 70-80 percent sensitive. This means there are about 20 -30 percent false negatives. It is a poor screening test. Diagnosis of Covid-19 really goes beyond a positive test. I had patients that tested negative but we were absolutely sure it was Covid from their symptoms, other blood test numbers and even CT scan of the chest all screamed Covid-19 but nasal swab was negative . Our ICU had a patient with 2 negative nasal swab tests. We still believed it was Covid-19. He then deteriorated and needed to be intubated. After intubation, a swab was gotten from his trachea ( deeper/ lower respiratory tract) and sent for Covid-19 testing , that was the one that came back positive.

  5. Trump is the type of animal that would invite a predator into his home, and then blame the children for getting assaulted.

    1. @ExIm Asia trump is having everyone in the White House tested multiple times a day at the same time he’s telling ppl testing isn’t necessary.

      so I did understand your point, and was showing trump is the worst of all at it.

    2. @ExIm Asia brilliant comeback! Did you think that up all by your little lonesome, or did ask the orange toddler for help? It’s about his speed!

    3. @Rodney Boehner “They don’t have the virus because they’re tested daily. ”
      see, if you’da led with that instead of your whataboutsim, you’da had a point. instead you wanted to deflect and troll.

      even now you want to deflect from Pence’s flunky telling folks to take off their masks so Pence wouldn’t look bad not wearing one.
      because we’ve seen Pence and trump are entitled elitists who think the rules dont’ apply to them, and that sorta ruins the ir whole brand.

  6. Don’t forget Pence wwas caught moving empty boxes “for the camera.” Thisn wholenadministration are a disgrace. Blue Tsunami 2020. This time it’s a matter of life and death

    1. I saw that video and you can CLEARLY hear what he and the others are saying. Still people canโ€™t wait until November to vote for 4 more years of this nonsense!

  7. I also think trumpโ€™s orange makeup will smear all over mask. Thatโ€™d be a great picture๐Ÿคฃ

    1. Danielle Sullivan oh I honestly think it was the original issue and then it kind of
      caught on as a movement. I can just imagine the front page of every paper and magazine….internationally๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿคฃ
      All the White House staffers in a crowded West Wing that have been exposed because of these idiots.

    2. Ann Smith aThats why he wonโ€™t wear it. My lipstick smudges each time I take mine off.

    3. Sharon Schubert Absolutely! That sob is getting people killed because of his makeup. I truly despise him, barr, miller and mcconnell with all my heart and soul!

    1. Steve Duke, comment sound like โ€œ Russia if youโ€™re listening I want you to release Hilary Clinton emails.

  8. He doesn’t want to wear a mask of fear of looking weak, he’s a sad and pathetic little man

    1. i hate that they think that apologies & tears are a sign of weakness, & that SILENCE is a form of “strength.” (it’s actually QUITE the opposite)

    2. @john abbot Look you dumb libitard, Pence is tested daily so there’s no chance of him infecting anyone. I’m sure all these food execs were tested too before this meeting. If you don’t have the virus in your system, you have no chance of infecting others. So why isn’t CNN shutting down. They have an outbreak inside their studios, and I know they don’t test daily.

    3. @john abbot everything that other person said, can b said about the conditions, in the WhiteHouse right now… sep it’d b an ACTUAL reality, the other way around, from what Rodney said. (i shall NOT give them the attention, that they seek) the virus is in the WhiteHouse & from what the lady said, it’s next to IMPOSSIBLE, to socially distance yourself THERE. maybe they aughta shut the whole WhiteHouse down then, huh.. ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™€๏ธ by THEIR logic.. ๐Ÿ™„ … besides… if they WERE to actually WATCH this vid, they just might see that the backrounds, behind all of them, ARE in fact, DIFFERENT… i don’t think those ppl are even in the same damm room. (hell, most of them probably aint even in the same building) they need to get off that kick of thinking that the actors are honest ppl. they’re only saying what they’re paid to say & they only wanna tell ppl what THEY want them to hear. ppl should just listen to the 1s that aint being paid extra, to take sides. ppl like every1 over at TYT, TYT Nation, TYT Sports, The Damage Report, The Majority Report, Brian Tyler Cohen, David Pakman, Ring of Fire, Jesse Dollemore, The View… Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel Bill Mauher… hell, i’ll even listen to Randy Rainbow, before i go believing ppl that won’t even have any news outlet agreeing with them… & THAT โ˜๐Ÿ˜ณ is just SOME of the political channels that i got hooked on… (i can’t wait til we got our nice boring government back) i gotta hear all these ppl saying the SAME thing & AGREEING with it, BEFORE i go believing it. … with a list like mine, i think it’s pretty obvious that they can’t ALL b wrong.. especially when they aint afraid to share their sources, AND admit how credible they are.. ๐Ÿค“๐Ÿ‘ holy smokes… look how much i just typed. ๐Ÿ˜ฒ (so sorry) atleast it’s somethin that the trolls really should hear. plz excuse my use of slang & abbr & have yourself a good night. ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿ˜ท๐Ÿ‘ stay safe out there… we all must do OUR PART by staying APART. cuz the longer they drag this sh!t out, the longer we’ll ALL b dealin with it. ๐Ÿฅบ

  9. These 4 persons just exposed themselves to coronavirus in order to please the VP ( vice poodle)

    1. Mark Hepworth Jesus, pal, of course we know. It’s all we talk about. Laughing, who cares? Laugh it up. This is serious. Trump is beyond mad. Western Civilization is going all Late Roman Giddy. He’s going to watch as many of us die as turn out to be slightly more likely than 50% to not be his base. He’s going to delight in squeezing those bone spurs into a fine pair of zinc sitting-shoes and bravely crushing the neck of whatever population is left I don’t expect you to help, no one can ever help the villian in the third reel. We earned him. We’re in that horrible twilight zone where everything seems to slow down right as your car hits the phone pole.

  10. Anxious to see who will contract the virus in the White House…my God, SOME obviously doesn’t take this serious…even though, it’s in the White House now! Too vein or too stupid to wear a mask!!!

    1. @Daniel Doucet “I expected a cogent argument. ”
      no you didn’t, you fcking lying troll.
      you were trolling for a response, not expecting an argument.
      here’s a response for you- trump really screwed this up multiple ways, which i why it’s like resident evil out there.

    2. @get lost You’re a Trump supporter, that’s as close to inbred as it comes. I mean you’ve got a Trump supporter blowing his nose on a Dollar Store employee’s shirt in Michigan because he was told to wear a mask, you got armed Trump supporters in a stand off with cops because they wanted a bar to re-open, you got Trump supporters dying because they drank fish tank cleaner thinking it could cure COVID, that’s the group YOU’RE a part of, inbred.

    3. @septillion2501 typical liberal. No tolerance. Only attacks. Seriously, I thought you guys were supposed to be a kind and caring bunch. I guess that’s only when people agree with you on everything. Very similar to every communist that’s ever lived.

    4. โ€‹@Randall Marsh It’s a Trump supporter, it dun not no dem wurds reel good like ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚

    1. Why isn’t CNN wearing masks? FAKE NEWS!!! BTW Pence is tested daily, so I’m not too worried that he’s infectious. CNN is not tested daily, yet they have 3 anchors infected with an outbreak inside their studios. They should shut down.

  11. Crap. The staffer wasnโ€™t telling them โ€œitโ€™s okโ€ to take off their masks, she was telling them to remove their masks. Itโ€™s optics.

    1. Could any one tell me what “optics” means here? Dictionnary explanation doesn’t make sense, but I get a feeling it means something similar to saving face.

  12. “Why not set an example?” Jake please. I realize this is a rhetorical question but you already know the answer, and so do Gloria, and Abby, as well as everyone else in the country, who have their eyes open. The man is a lump! There’s no room for logical thought in his world. He’s weak of character and cannot stand criticism of any degree. He’s not a leader, he’s a failed realtor. He’s spent other people’s money to make it appear as if he’d accomplished something when in fact he did nothing. That’s what we’ve got, a jellyfish masquerading as a battleship!

    1. By Jove! Simply cracking, spot on. An ethical thrashing earned in a veritable plethora of ways, sure to have the rogue licking his rhetorical wounds. Quite so.

  13. โ€œOk what about all the dead people โ€œ Lmao! This is so true! People canโ€™t forget about all those that lost their lives because of this President. He has blood on his hands.

    1. have you seen the conspiracy theories that people are not actually dying of Covid but of other things and that hospitals are being paid to say its Covid? All so that Gates can fund a vaccine that will also inject you with a microchip. And make Trump look bad before the election

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