On Tuesday night, Bloomberg News released a tweet designed to make Vice President Mike Pence appear to be cold-hearted and ruthless when he spoke to food workers, writing in the tweet that Pence “tells U.S. food workers to ‘do your job’ as some fall ill.” If that weren’t enough, in the caption below describing the article the tweet linked to, Bloomberg wrote, “Pence to ‘Vital’ Food Workers, ‘Show Up and Do Your Job’ During Virus.”
Then, to complete their disingenuous trifecta, Bloomberg printed the opening lines of the article, which stated, “Just hours after a labor union reported what may be the first poultry-worker deaths associated with the coronavirus in the U.S., Vice President Mike Pence …”
Pence tells U.S. food workers to "do your job" as some fall ill https://t.co/AQMl2i6rjL
— Bloomberg (@business) April 8, 2020
In the article, Bloomberg admitted Pence actually said at the press conference, “You are vital. You are giving a great service to the people of the United States of America and we need you to continue, as a part of what we call critical infrastructure, to show up and do your job.”
But Bloomberg tempered that by putting quotes around Pence saying the government would work tirelessly to protect the workers, writing, “In return, Pence said, the government will ‘work tirelessly’ to ensure their workplaces are safe.”
Here’s what Pence actually said, and you judge whether Pence sounded cold-hearted:
We all have in our hearts and our minds our healthcare workers and I’ll speak for a moment about the supplies and resources that we’re working to provide for all of them. But right below our healthcare workers are all the people that are working in critical infrastructure around the country, and some of the most important people are working in food supply. From the farmers and the ranchers to our processors to our distributors to our truckers to our grocers: Americans are keeping food on the table for our fellow Americans.
And let me begin by just saying what I said to some of the most prominent CEOs of meat and grain industry companies in the country; companies like Tyson Foods and Hormel today: not just these companies but to all the hard-working people working in food supply today: Thank you. Thank you for what you’re doing to keep those grocery store shelves stocked; thank you for showing up for work every day and working hard to keep that food supply rolling in America.
You know, it was more than five weeks ago that the president brought in all of the grocery store leaders in the country, and there he received a commitment that no grocery store in America would close. And they haven’t. But it’s been these heroic Americans from the farm to the fork that have made it possible for Americans to have one less worry. And they’re truly inspiring heroes.
That being said, I did hear from the industry today that there have been reports of some plants having reduced capacity because of people having concerns about exposure to the coronavirus. In fact, over the last several days there’s been some incidents of worker absenteeism, and some plants have actually been forced to close temporarily.
And so, on behalf of the president, on behalf of our entire team, on behalf of a grateful nation, let me just say to all of you that are working in the food industry at every level across the country: Just understand that you are vital. You are giving a great service to the people of the United States of America and we need you to continue, as a part of what we call our critical infrastructure, to show up and do your job and know that we are going to continue to work tirelessly in working with all of your companies to make sure that that workplace is safe.
Video below: