Vice President Mike Pence, in charge of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force, was caught on a hot mic asking if he could carry empty boxes of what had housed personal protective equipment (PPE) off a van and into the front door of a nursing home “for the cameras.”
It turns out he was joking, but late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel took the opportunity to mock the vice president, and wound up offering an apology of sorts after being criticized.
“Here he is, with no mask on, wheeling boxes of PPEs into a health care center, and doing his best to lift them,” Kimmel said, narrating the video. “What a hero.”
“And since it was going so well, and also because he didn’t realize he had a mic on, Magic Mike decided to keep it going.”
In the clip, someone tells Pence, “Those are empty sir.”
“Well, can I carry the empty ones, just for the camera?” Pence asks.
“Mike Pence pretending to carry empty PPEs into a hospital is the perfect metaphor for who he is and what he’s doing. A big box of nothing delivering another box of nothing.”
Kimmel incorrectly characterized Pence’s actions. The boxes he was carrying were not empty, although he did ask if he could carry the empty ones in, jokingly.
On Twitter, Kimmel responded to critics by saying, “it would appear that @vp was joking about carrying empty boxes for a staged publicity stunt. The full video reveals that he was carrying full boxes for a staged publicity stunt. My apologies. I know how dearly this administration values truth.”
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This article, including its title, has been updated for clarity sand to include Kimmel’s response. A video with an incorrect characterization of the Vice President’s actions was removed and replaced.