Democrats erupted after receiving vague answers from Vice President Mike Pence about efforts to ramp up coronavirus testing.
Senate Democrats exploded in frustration during a conference call with Vice President Mike Pence and Trump administration officials on Friday afternoon, with one normally laid-back senator asserting it was the most maddening phone call he’s ever taken part in, according to participants and people familiar with the call.
The call between President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force and Senate Democrats on Friday left the Senate minority “livid,” according to one Democrat on the call, because of the lack of clear answers about national testing for the disease.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) called it a “dereliction of duty,” said a second person on the call. King added: “I have never been so mad about a phone call in my life.”
King is generally among the most mild-mannered senators but was extraordinarily frustrated with the Trump administration’s testing woes. He said the administration had left states adrift.
Pence responded to King by saying there have been misunderstandings about the federal government’s work with states, according to a person familiar with a call, and the vice president explained the way the administration had been coordinating with states to ramp up testing. Pence was even-keeled in the face of the frustration, that person said. But Democrats said afterward they felt he wasn’t giving clear answers to their questions…
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