Rush Limbaugh tells VP Mike Pence: Democratic governors “seem to have a political desire to inflict pain on your administration"
Limbaugh asks Pence: “But how do you coordinate with this new guidance from the CDC to reopen, when you have some states that aren’t interested in it?”
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From the May 15, 2020, edition of Premiere Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show
RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): I want to ask you about these CDC guidelines, these new guidelines that were released yesterday, and the reopening plans across the country. It’s — it's a — look, I know you don’t want to get political in the midst of this national fight to defeat this thing.
VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Yeah.
LIMBAUGH: But for somebody like me, Mr. VP, it's not — you look at Florida with the job Governor DeSantis is doing, he’s just doing a phenomenal job. Governor Kemp is doing a great job. You go to some of these blue states, where these governors seem to have a political desire to inflict pain on your administration rather than get their states reopened. I’m not asking you to comment on that. But how do you coordinate with this new guidance from the CDC to reopen, when you have some states that aren’t interested in it?
PENCE: Well, look, we’re coordinating with all the governors. They — as you point out, when we were only 30 days into “45 days to slow the spread,” the president said, look, we want states to be ready — just as soon as they can safely do it — to open up America again. And that’s why a month ago we released those guidelines, the CDC guidelines that came out yesterday, and we’ll continue to produce in the future.
We’re going to give confidence to businesses and communities to begin to go back to work. But I have to tell you, that part of what we want to do is make sure the American people know what’s going on. As I sit here today, even though we are dramatically increasing testing, Rush — I mean, because of the public-private partnership the president launched months ago, we just cleared 10 million tests that have been done in this country. We're —
LIMBAUGH: Phenomenal, it’s phenomenal.
PENCE: Yeah, when I — when the president tapped me to lead the Coronavirus Task Force, Rush, we had done 8,400 tests total, because of the arcane, slow system at CDC and public labs. The president reinvented testing in America. We’ve now done 10 million tests. We’re averaging around the country about 300,000 tests a day, I’m told. And even though we’re increasing testing, the number of positive cases of coronavirus are still going down around the country —
LIMBAUGH: Yeah, I just — I was just talking about that. That’s a great phenomenon that’s happening.
PENCE: It’s an incredible phenomenon, and it’s one that we’re determined to make sure the American people understand. We’re testing more. But it was about three weeks ago that we had about 40,000 cases in a single day. About ten days ago it was about 35,000 — I don’t have my charts in front of me — but it’s been under 20,000 in recent days.
I mean, what the American people have done at great sacrifice — and make no mistake about it, this has been tough on families, and businesses large and small, and communities of faith. That the American people did it, and are doing it, and because of that, even though we’re testing so much more, the actual cases are coming down. And most importantly, fatalities continue to trend down around the country, even while you have states across America that are opening up again.
And I think every American should be encouraged by that. We continue to listen to state and local authorities about the way to practice social distancing, and act in a safe and responsible way. But the president knows it, I know it, you know it — America works when America is working. And the American people want to get back to work, and they want to do that in a safe and responsible way. And it’s happening, Rush, it’s happening all across America as we speak.