Fox News host Chris Wallace directly confronted Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday morning about tweets from President Donald Trump this week in which he suggested he supported protesters in blue states who are demanding that Democratic governors immediately reopen their states despite the continued threat from the coronavirus pandemic.

During an interview with Pence on “Fox News Sunday,” Wallace told the VP that many of the protesters in states such as Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia had directly violated the White House’s calls for social distancing.

In response, Pence heaped praise on the president, remarking:

“We continue to see encouraging results, declining cases, declining hospitalizations because of what the American people have done, because of the president’s leadership. We are slowing the spread, we are hastening the day when we can put the coronavirus in the past and reopen the American economy.”

Wallace interrupted to interject:

“But Mr. Vice President. In a number of these cases, these protesters — who are not social distancing — are saying they don’t want to wait. In many cases, they’re protesting your own guidelines to stop the spread.”

The Fox host then quoted the tweets from Trump:

“Liberate Minnesota, liberate Michigan and liberate Virginia. So what does the president mean because you’ve got guidelines that are calling for social distancing and staying at home?

“Even your guidelines to reopen the country are very phased and gradual. What does the president mean when he says liberate these states?”

Again, Pence failed to respond to the question and defaulted to his fallback position of complimenting his boss:

“The American people know that no one in this country wants to reopen this country more than President Donald Trump. And on Thursday that president asked us to lay out guidelines for how the states can responsibly do that.

“And in the president’s tweets and public statements, I can assure you he’s going to continue to encourage governors to find ways to safely and responsibly let America go back to work.”

Instead of liberating individual states, it seems more accurate to say that this nation needs to liberate itself from the reckless reign of Donald Trump. And we can do exactly that at the ballot box in November.

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