The Pence campaign has requested that no plexiglass dividers be placed around the VP at Wednesday night’s vice-presidential debate.
On Tuesday, Mike Pence’s team called the protection unnecessary after the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that dividers would be used as a safety measure amid COVID-19 concerns.
Pence and Senator Kamala Harris will face off while sitting more than 12 feet apart. The vice president will be allowed to participate without a plexiglass surrounding him, despite the his campaign previously being on board with the precautions.
“If the Trump administration’s war on masks has now become a war on safety shields, that tells you everything you need to know about why their COVID response is a failure,” Harris spokesperson Sabrina Singh told DailyMail.com.
Read More: Trump valet, aide, test positive for coronavirus: report
Singh noted that Harris “will be at the debate, respecting the protections that the Cleveland Clinic has put in place to promote safety for all concerned.”
“If she wants it, she’s more than welcome to surround herself with plexiglass if that makes her feel more comfortable,” Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, told The Washington Post about Sen. Harris.
“We don’t think it’s needed,” said Short. “There’s no science to support it. The tables are 12 feet apart and each participant is tested. It’s important for the American people that the debate go forward, and if she’s more comfortable with plexiglass then that’s fine.”
Three days after the first Trump-Biden debate in Cleveland last week, the president tested positive for COVID-19. Following a brief hospitalization,Trump was released Monday and wasted no time making clear that he intends to take part in the next debate, tweeting, “I am looking forward to the debate on the evening of Thursday, October 15 in Miami. It will be great!”
Read More: Trump’s top aide Stephen Miller tests positive for COVID-19
Pence has reportedly attended two events where people have tested COVID-positive, but he himself has, so far, not contracted the potentially deadly contagion.
CDC Director Robert R. Redfield explained that “from a public health standpoint, it is safe for the Vice President to participate in the upcoming Vice-Presidential debate.”
Meanwhile, theGRIO previously reported, Stephen Miller, President Trump’s senior adviser and speechwriter, tested positive for the coronavirus Tuesday.
A senior administration official said Miller had previously tested negative as White House officials have tried to contain an outbreak on the complex that has infected Trump, the first lady and more than a dozen other aides and associates.
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