Mike Pence’s coronavirus scandal just got even uglier

| 11:56 pm EDT October 25, 2020
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When the news broke that five of Mike Pence’s advisers had tested positive for coronavirus, we were only given two names. At the time we weren’t sure if this was happenstance, or if there was a reason the other three names were being suppressed. Now it turns out one of those additional names is very ugly for Pence.

Mike Pence’s “body man” Zach Bauer is one of the people who has tested positive for coronavirus. This is the person who follows Pence around all day and takes care of everything for him (think Charlie Young on The West Wing). This means that not only has Pence been exposed to coronavirus, he’s ostensibly been exposed at close range for a prolonged period of time.

Mike Pence still claims he’s testing negative daily. But even if you believe that, it’s commonplace for infected people to test negative for several days before they develop symptoms, and then> test positive. In other words, Pence is out on the campaign trail right now, and there’s a good chance he currently has coronavirus.

Not only is this unconscionably reckless from a human safety standpoint, it’s also reckless from a political standpoint. If Mike Pence tests positive and/or falls ill before election day, this is going to blow back on the Trump-Pence campaign at a time when it’s already facing enough trouble as it is. But when you’re losing by ten points with nine days to go, stupid panic moves tend to rule the day – especially if you’re stupid to begin with.