Vice President Mike Pence is chairing the President’s coronavirus task force.
Pence has been front and center every day in televised press briefings announcing new developments in the administration’s campaign to pull out all the stops to curb this deadly outbreak.
But now Mike Pence made this confession. Fox News hosts were stunned into silence.
The Vice President participated in a Fox News “virtual town hall” event where hosts Bill Hemmer and Harris Faulkner, as well as medical experts asked questions.
Foremost on the minds of many Americans are the social distancing measures put in place by the government to slow the spread of the disease.
The federal government can only issue guidelines about what actions Americans can take in their daily lives to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Under America’s federalist system of government, it is up to the states to issue “stay-at-home” orders or implement quarantines.
But as the coronavirus has spread, rumors have circulated that Donald Trump was considering using his authority under the Stafford Act to declare martial law by federalizing the National Guard and instituting a two-week national lockdown.
Vice President Pence slammed this speculation as fake news.
“I can tell you that at no point has the White House Coronavirus Task Force discussed what some people call a nationwide lockdown, or, as you described as, a stay at home order. What we’ve done is publish the president’s coronavirus guidelines.… This is what we believe every American should be doing during what remains of the next week or so,” Vice President Pence explained to Fox News.
Pence repeated the administration’s position that it was up to governors to ultimately decide if their residents lived under quarantine.
“But, that being said, let me say, as states like California and Illinois and, of course, New York and elsewhere have taken strong measures. President Trump and I and our team fully support the decisions by your state and local officials that may be stronger than this,” the Vice President added.
Rumors about a national lockdown and National Guardsmen or United States military members in the streets panicked millions of Americans.
Stories about a national lockdown enforced at gun point by soldiers spread like wildfire as many Americans shared a disturbing text message.
These messages were all lies and misinformation.
The Trump administration claimed they were part of a propaganda campaign by a foreign government to spread fear and panic among Americans during a time of great uncertainty.
The administration has taken every opportunity to shoot down rumors of a national lockdown with troops in the streets.
Vice President Pence’s categorical denial is the latest attempt by a high-profile administration official to try and put the American people’s minds at ease that they would not be living under martial law.
Great American Daily will keep you up to date on any new developments in the Trump administration’s efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
