DES MOINES, Iowa - A video shows five food industry heads scheduled to meet with Vice President Mike Pence last Friday in Des Moines removed their face masks on stage after being approached by a staffer.
The video that's gone viral shows the five executives - Ron Cameron of Mountaire Farms, Ken Sullivan of Smithfield Foods, Rodney McMullen of Kroger, Noel White of Tyson Foods and Zippy Duvall, the president of the American Farm Bureau Federation - removing their masks after being spoken to by the staffer as they were seated and waiting on stage to meet with Vice President Pence for a round table discussion on the country's food supply chain.
Pence arrived about an hour late in Des Moines from Washington, DC after it was announced that his press secretary, Katie Miller, had tested positive for COVID-19.
The intercept reports that Pence also did not wear a face mask at the round table discussion, nor did the group accompanying him on Air Force Two from Washington. That group included Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Iowa’s two Republican senators, Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst.
Both Grassley and Ernst issued statements saying they had tested negative for COVID-19 before boarding Air Force Two, and would not be self isolating. Iowa Governor KIm Reynolds announced Monday that she would be under “modified quarantine” after a meeting at the White House last week with President Trump and Pence. State medical director Doctor Caitlin Pedati, who accompanied Reynolds of the trip, announced she is self isolating from her home.