As COVID-19 relief remains hanging in the balance, millions of Americans out of work will lose their unemployment benefits Saturday, and the United States is left without a leader at the helm as the outgoing president spent the Christmas holiday on the golf course with the bipartisan stimulus package awaiting his signature. Over three hundred and thirty thousand Americans have died from the coronavirus, and many in this country can’t put food on the table.
While Donald Trump tweets from his Mar-a-Lago resort, vice-president Mike Pence made holiday plans, bringing nearly fifty Secret Service agents with him who have booked rooms at the Grand Hyatt Vail and other locations around Vail Valley, Colorado, and ski instructors at Beaver Creek Resort were booked as well, according to CBS Denver.
In November, it was reported that 130 Secret Service Agents that protect the White House contracted COVID-19, so it would be nice if Pence weren’t so careless with their lives.
State Sen. Kerry Donovan, a Democrat who represents Eagle County in District 5, took the super-spreading vice-president to task on Twitter.
Hello @VP / @Mike_Pence. Heard you’re visiting my hometown for the holiday. Stay tuned for a story a day of things that would be different if you had chosen to lead and address and instead of ignore and minimize the COVID-19 pandemic. #COVID19
— Kerry Donovan (@KerryDonovanSD5) December 23, 2020
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Good morning @VP / @Mike_Pence. Make sure you pack a mask. You’ll be spending the holidays in a mandatory mask zone. And as you fly into Eagle and drive up valley, you’ll pass by a couple of schools – CO saw it’s first decrease in enrollment since the 80s.
— Kerry Donovan (@KerryDonovanSD5) December 23, 2020
Are you settled in @VP / @Mike_Pence ? Looking at what to do while you are here? Pls note that an event producer based in Vail had to furlough all their employees & go dark after 26 yrs of producing events across the world & for Vail. No plan from you= they couldn’t plan events.
— Kerry Donovan (@KerryDonovanSD5) December 23, 2020
It’s apres ski time @VP / @Mike_Pence ! If a year ago you and your team hadn’t minimized the seriousness of covid-19, we would have been better prepared and possibly could have avoided losing one of our cherished apres ski performers. Our community lost a good friend.
— Kerry Donovan (@KerryDonovanSD5) December 23, 2020
Christmas in the Rockies is wonderful, right @VP / @mike_pence? For locals, figuring out holidays is feeling harder than ever. Our food bank supports 4 times the number of people it did pre-covid. While you said this would be over by Easter, we tried to fill pantry shelves.
— Kerry Donovan (@KerryDonovanSD5) December 25, 2020
Others were outraged, too.
The nation is in crisis and R 2 leaders r vacationing. Trump is golfing, Pence is skiing!
— JScub (@js26783_joe) December 25, 2020
How many Americans will go to bed hungry on this Christmas Day?
These are not Christian people.
— Skydawg (@Skydawg5) December 25, 2020
Disgusting!
— Ivo H (@Ostravaczech) December 25, 2020
Food banks are being hammered while Americans struggle through multiple national crises, and Pence is taking a ski trip. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is attempting to pull off an autogolpe as his vice president takes to the slopes.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0