How strange that Mike Pence decided to visit these specific states during the coronavirus pandemic

If I didn't know any better, I'd say the Veep has been going on a covert reelection tour

Pence faced criticism for not wearing a mask in Minnesota, but was pictured in Indiana fully covered up ((2020 The Associated Press))

The entire United States and its major news outlets seem transfixed by two things, and only those two things these days.

One is the coronavirus pandemic. And the other is Donald Trump, the president who is pushing to open a country still awash in Covid-19 microbes.

When it comes to presidential pivots, Barack Obama deserved much of the mocking he received from national security and trade wonks for its “pivot to Asia.” It was more tap water than the flavored seltzer the White House promised, never quite fizzing and bubbling in anyone’s glass.

The current occupant of the seat in the Oval Office behind the storied Resolute Desk pivots more than any president in any era. He pivots more than did NBA legend Michael Jordan – back in the news thanks to the Last Dance documentary – trying to find just enough room between defender to get off his patented fall-away jump shot.

Trump pivots from policy stance to policy stance, sometimes within hours of taking a new one. A prime example: He told reporters in Arizona on Tuesday afternoon he likely would terminate the White House coronavirus task force, opting to distribute its functions within the sprawling federal bureaucracy and shift his messaging to revving up the country’s crippled economy (just in time for his reelection campaign).

By the next morning, however, the cable news president had changed his mind. The task force, it turned out, was safe — for now. Like his nightly coronavirus briefings which he delivered so often alongside that task force, it had done little for his public relations, so it stopped being important.

Once Trump realized his daily turns at the White House lectern were not helping his reelection chances, he essentially handed all responsibility to state leaders. In stunning bluntness, new White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday evening described the West Wing as a mere Covid-19 consultancy, ready to help governors but not at all in charge of what happens next to a country in crisis, with over 1.2 million confirmed cases and at least 73,500 deaths according to Johns Hopkins University.

“This is a governor-led effort. The president has said that governors make the decisions as to move forward and we encourage them to follow our phased approach,” McEnany told reporters during her second official briefing.

The president even made his return to the road with a quasi-campaign trip to Arizona, a state which he and his campaign team still think he could pull into the red column after losing it by less than 3 percentage points in 2016 to Hillary Clinton.

And Trump has teased another trip — to Ohio. The Buckeye State isn’t much of a swing state these days, but any first-term incumbent or presidential candidate is going to spend a lot of time there. It’s just smart politics. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters that that trip won’t happen this week, but the president is ready to hit the campaign trail; he even suggested his raucous rallies might soon resume.

But there is a member of the Trump team who already has been hitting 2020 battleground states under the guise of getting a firsthand look at frontline workers toiling away amid the pandemic: Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s ever-loyal No. 2, a man the kids might call his “ride or die.”

But of the five battleground states Pence will have visited by Friday, none rank higher than 15th (Virginia) among confirmed coronavirus cases and one ranks 27th (Minnesota). Not exactly the epicenter of the outbreak inside the United States.

Pence began his tour of first-tier and second-level swing states on April 1st, with a visit to a Wal-Mart distribution centre in Zion Crossroads, Virginia. The facility lies in Louisa County in central Virginia – Trump country. For the Trump-Pence ticket to snatch the Mid-Atlantic commonwealth from Democrats in November, they will need a huge GOP turnout in such counties.

The vice president also jetted aboard Air Force Two on April 19 to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he delivered the commencement address before social-distanced cadets at the US Air Force Academy. Such military academy events are standard fare for commanders-in-chief and vice presidents; but Colorado’s importance in the race for the White House and Republicans’ efforts to keep control of the Senate cannot be ignored – such visits by POTUS and VPOTUS always amount to big local news.

Colorado ranks 16th on the confirmed cases list.

Pence traveled to Madison, Wisconsin on April 21, where he toured a GE Healthcare manufacturing facility that has been producing ventilators, breathing machines that the White House says have saved countless lives as the respiratory disease has spread.

"It's truly remarkable what you have done here. It's a testament to a great company, it's a testament to a great workforce,” the VP told workers in brief remarks on the factory floor. “We have one mission and that’s to save lives … We will someday soon put the coronavirus in the past and put all of America back to work.”

But Trump and Pence have another mission: Get reelected. Wisconsin ranks 24th for confirmed cases.

In Minnesota on April 28, the Veep caused quite the (predictable) hubbub when he ignored the Mayo Clinic’s recommendation that all visitors wear masks inside its Rochester facility. The media howled. Democratic legislators salivated, pouncing on what they described as Pence’s arrogance and defiance.

Less covered was Minnesota’s importance in the presidential election and its ranking on the confirmed coronavirus case list: 27th. Trump has boasted this year at rallies in the North Star State that he thinks he can wrestle it into his column after Clinton won it four years ago by just 1.5 percentage points.

Pence will be off to Iowa on Friday, another state that GOP political operatives believe could be in play come November. Trump campaign aides have confirmed it is among a handful of states Trump and Pence lost in 2016 that they are targeting as insurance policies should Democrats win back Michigan or Wisconsin or Florida.

An aide to Pence did not respond to a request for a description of how the VP and his team have selected states to visit during the pandemic. But, to borrow – and modify – a phrase made famous by former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer: The trips speak for themselves.