Pence Lies About Coronavirus Numbers Ahead of Trump's Tulsa Rally

Shocking no one, Mike Pence is straight up lying about troubling COVID-19 numbers ahead of Trump's big dumb rally in Tulsa later this week.

mp
Getty

Image via Getty/SAUL LOEB/AFP

mp

As expected, Trump's upcoming gathering of the dolts in Tulsa has been preceded by the spouting of abject bullshit regarding COVID-19 numbers.

The comments in question come from VP Mike Pence, who told reporters on Monday afternoon that numbers for the virus in Oklahoma had "declined precipitously" despite the state having recorded its highest one-day total for new cases this past weekend. 

"In a very real sense, they've flattened the curve ... And today their hospital capacity is abundant, the number of cases in Oklahoma has declined precipitously, and we feel very confident going forward with the rally this coming weekend," Pence said during an event dubbed Fighting for America's Seniors, per the Daily Beast.

In reality, Oklahoma—like other states including Alabama and South Carolina—is actually experiencing some COVID-19 developments that are far from comforting. New cases jumped 68 percent to 1,081 in the second week of June, with the positive test rate increasing from 2 percent to 4 percent.

Pence's messaging, of course, is similar in tone to that of Trump, who used the phrase "COVID-shame" on Monday when describing news outlets who were merely reporting actual numbers on the virus. The two have also been busy pushing a lie-centered narrative in which the rise in cases is misleadingly blamed on the availability of testing.

Hey ⁦@nytimes⁩ when an official is deliberately misleading the public, isn’t that also known as lying? https://t.co/odbReLiIrM

— Vanita Gupta (@vanitaguptaCR) June 16, 2020

Latest in Life