Pierce: You Can See Mike Pence Reach the Absolute Frontier Limits of His Intellect in This Exchange [View all]

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You Can See Mike Pence Reach the Absolute Frontier Limits of His Intellect in This Exchange
The vice president strained with all his might to avoid admitting that CBS reporter Paula Reid was exactly right.

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
JUN 26, 2020

The White House Task Force on the coronavirus pandemic re-emerged from its hyperbaric chamber and met the press again on Friday morning. If you watched the whole thing, you might have noticed that none of them were adhering to CDC guidelines, including wearing masks, and that HHS Secretary Alex Azar tried a little of the old okey-doke involving the Ebola outbreak in the Congo, and that Dr. Anthony Fauci now sounds like a man who has been hauling a barge through the Erie Canal. But all you really needed to see was the last question and the last answer.

Paula Reid of CBS asked this question of the Poser-in-Chief regarding the superspreader events in which his re-election campaign is now engaged.

You could see Pence visibly reach the absolute frontier limits of his intellect in trying to craft an answer that was not admitting that Reid was absolutely right, and that also would keep Pence from offending the angry toddler for whom he works. What emerged from that frontier was a rhetorical critter unfamiliar to most political taxonomists. Neither fish nor fowl, nor really English, either.

I want to remind you again freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble is in the Constitution of the U.S. Even in a health crisis, the American people don't forfeit our constitutional rights and working with state officials as we did in Oklahoma and as we did in Arizona, we are creating settings where people can choose to participate in the political process. We will continue to do that. I think it is really important that we recognize how important freedom and personal responsibility are to this entire equation but allowing younger Americans to understand, particularly in the counties most impacted by the challenges we are facing. Their age group, we think is important but it is so important that we recognize that as we issue guidance to reopen America two months ago and has all 50 states are opening up our country again, people are going back to work, everyday life is being restored one step, one day at a time.

Note how quickly Pence, dancing as fast as he can, runs through his stock of conservative Republican cliches. He apparently is unaware that one can speak, laugh, cheer, chant “Lock her up!” and “Build the wall!” and “USA!”, and otherwise exercise one’s First Amendment rights through a mask. You can talk through a mask. (Ask Batman.) Also, you can peaceably assemble while standing six feet apart. You can model behavior for your fellow citizens. You at least can say the word, “mask.” Pence asked us repeatedly to pray, but refused to ask us to wear masks when we do. God will not understand this at all.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a32984272/mike-pence-masks-social-distancing-trump-rallies/