Senate Democrats 'livid' after Pence refuses to push for more coronavirus testing

Federal discussions to expand coronavirus testing could not be going worse.

Senate Democrats held a call with Vice President Mike Pence on Friday to discuss the federal government's COVID-19 response and how best to restart the economy. But instead of working out any form of plan, Democrats left the call "livid" and complaining of the White House's "dereliction of duty" amid the crisis, the senators say.

Despite showing some promising growth for a while, expansion of the U.S.'s COVID-19 testing capacity has ground to a halt, with fewer than 150,000 people able to be tested every day. Experts say we need to double or triple that capacity before even thinking about restarting the economy, and yet President Trump still rooted for protesters pressuring their Democratic governors to do so on Friday with tweets calling to "liberate" some states. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Md.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) pressed Pence on those tweets in the call, per Politico's Burgess Everett.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Beyond the tweets, "almost every question from Senate Democrats has been about testing," a source told The Daily Beast's Sam Stein about the call. But Pence never gave the Democrats solid answers about ramping up testing, amounting to what Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) called a "dereliction of duty." "I have never been so mad about a phone call in my life," King even said to Pence and everyone on the call.