Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife sent out invitations to 900 guests to attend the latest super-spreader event from this administration even after the United States reached the grim milestone of over three hundred thousand Americans dying from the coronavirus. However, only 70 people RSVPed to Pompeo’s invitation, and even less showed up to his fancy pants party, the Washington Post reports.
Pompeo had been scheduled to speak but canceled his address and had someone else deliver a message in his place to the event for the families of diplomats in high-risk locations, the Post reports.
One woman, the wife of a diplomat, said she declined the invitation because her husband was serving 0verseas, and if she had attended and gotten sick, no one would have been able to take care of their children.
“It was a completely irresponsible party to throw,” she said.
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To sane Americans, it was not just irresponsible to host the event, but it was dangerous, too.
The outlet reports that the decision to hold the indoor event came despite objections from some Congress members, including the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who called on the outgoing Secretary of State to cancel the party and others the department held last week.
“I am concerned that these parties pose a significant health risk, not only to attendees but to the employees and workers who must staff these events, as well as to State Department employees who may feel pressured to attend,” Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) wrote in a letter addressed to Pompeo earlier this month.
The parties have also prompted criticism from the American Foreign Service Association, a nonpartisan union that represents diplomats, which issued a statement this month calling on the department to “reverse course and model responsible behavior in accordance with its own guidelines.”
This administration isn’t fond of the easy-to-follow guidelines that, if adhered to from the beginning, the United States would have reopened by now. Instead, the Trump administration has held super-spreader events with the president mocking social distancing guidelines while refusing to wear a protective face mask except on the odd occasion. Maybe, just maybe, Pompeo’s largely no-show party is a good sign that people are finally taking the pandemic seriously even though this administration has failed to lead by example. Imagine holding a massive indoor event while most Americans are isolating at home to stop the disease from spreading.
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
