Mike Pence is due to debate his Democratic rival Senator Kamala Harris on Wednesday.
Washington:
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, the next in line for the Oval Office, tested negative for COVID-19 hours after President Donald Trump announced he was infected and quarantined, said on Friday. spokesperson for Pence.
The result of Trump’s test shed the spotlight on Pence, a former Christian conservative lawmaker who has been one of the few constants in the Republican president’s tumultuous administration, just over a month before the two sought to be re-elected for a second term.
Pence, 61, is scheduled to debate his Democratic rival, Joe Biden’s vice president Sen. Kamala Harris, in Utah on Wednesday. A source from the Commission on Presidential Debates, which oversees events, said there were no plans to drop the debate after Trump tested positive.
“This morning, Vice President Pence and the Second Lady tested negative for COVID-19. Vice President Pence remains in good health and wishes the Trumps good health,” Spokesman Devin O’Malley said on Twitter.
Trump and Pence will work in separate residences, a White House official told Reuters, and their staff will also be separated to protect Pence should he take on the presidency. Pence receives the same intelligence briefings as the President.
Pence, who was last seen publicly with Trump at a Rose Garden press conference on Monday on coronavirus testing, would take over as interim president if Trump becomes unfit during medical treatment . This has happened three times in the history of the United States.
Then-President George W. Bush temporarily transferred power to Vice President Dick Cheney twice, for a few hours each in 2002 and 2007, while undergoing colonoscopies. Vice President George H.W. Bush served as interim president for nearly eight hours in 1985, while President Ronald Reagan had a precancerous lesion removed.
The White House said Trump was “not incapacitated” and worked in isolation while experiencing mild symptoms.
Pence replaced Trump on Friday in a conference call with governors about the coronavirus pandemic, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on 1010 WINS radio. Pence also replaced Trump on a call with heads of state to discuss support for vulnerable seniors.
President Nancy Pelosi is next in succession after Pence. She was tested for COVID-19 on Friday and the results were negative, her spokesperson said.
Harris tested negative on Thursday as part of his campaign’s routine screening for the virus.
Pence, a former governor of Indiana, has played a role largely behind the scenes of Trump’s White House, though he’s known to have his own presidential ambitions.
His deference endeared him to Trump, helping Pence survive in a White House with an almost constant turnover among senior officials. But he has sometimes been ridiculed for his public obsequiousness towards his boss.
Earlier this year, Trump put Pence in charge of the US response to the coronavirus pandemic, a brief that did not go well. The country’s death toll from the virus is more than 207,000. New cases of COVID-19 increased in 27 out of 50 US states in September compared to August, a Reuters analysis showed.
Pence has also played a central role in some of the administration’s legislative efforts, including tax cuts passed in 2017. Pence strongly opposes the right to abortion and passionately supports business deregulation and cutting back on abortion. the size of government.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
