While You Were Offline: Where's Your Mask, Mike Pence?

There's no way to sugarcoat it: Last week was another tough one. Authorities found corpses in U-Haul trucks and anecdotal evidence came out suggesting child abuse is rising due to quarantine. Upsides are hard to come by; unemployment continues to grow as more are laid off as a result of the virus, with the markets cratering in response—something that’s becoming a weekly occurrence. As high as the official figures for the Covid-19 death toll may be, evidence mounts that they’re lower than the reality, and it remains difficult to project what’s going to happen next. No wonder, then, that people are looking for anything to make them smile, whether it’s a new Oasis song, a fight between AMC Theaters and Universal over Trolls World Tour, or the joy that is Betty the Weathercat. But for those moments when even cats aren’t enough, there’s this.

What Happened: Folks have been talking about the value of face masks during the coronavirus pandemic for some time now. Most of them are generally in favor. Most, except Vice President Mike Pence, who last week showed up mask-less to clinic treating Covid-19 patients.

What Really Happened: Covid-19 continues to dominate … well, everything in the world, really, with one-in-six nursing homes in the US reporting an outbreak, health workers dying, and President Trump worried about meat. With all that going on, many were reassured to hear, at the start of last week, that Vice President Mike Pence would be visiting Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic to learn more about the state’s “moonshot”—which is to say, its aggressive stance towards making sure that every resident who wants to be tested for coronavirus has the opportunity. Except ...

Ah, yes. Did anyone have “the vice president ignores guidelines about face masks” in their office pool? If so, you get the prize this week. The move was problematic for a lot of reasons, including the fact that the clinic explicitly told Pence he should be wearing one.

In fact, a tweet confirming that the clinic had told Pence this mysteriously disappeared after his visit.

Unsurprisingly given the outcry his naked face caused, Pence tried to address his decision fairly quickly. Unfortunately, his explanation for choosing not to cover his face was … unconvincing, to say the least.

OK, but even beyond the thing about the eyes, that’s a somewhat worrying attitude for the guy in charge of the coronavirus task force to have, right? Unless, of course, Pence knew exactly what he was doing and just who he was doing it for, as some believed was the case.

Of course, maybe there’s another reason that we just haven’t thought about yet.

The Takeaway: On Friday, Pence wore a mask while touring a GM plant.

What Happened: Commentator Ben Shapiro suggested that older people dying of the coronavirus is "not the same thing" as younger people succumbing to the virus.

What Really Happened: When it comes to astonishingly ill-informed things that President Trump has said, the past seven days haven’t seen anything to top suggesting injecting disinfectant would help. If anything—perhaps sensing that he’s peaked, or maybe it’s panicked Republicans begging him to stop talking—Trump was almost quiet last week. (Well, almost.) But nature abhors a vacuum, as they say.

So just who is going to step up and dare to say something fairly nonsensical and insensitive about a global pandemic with tragic consequences for millions? Ladies and gentleman, Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro.

That is, of course, not a nice thing to say. The reason it went viral, however—and, oh boy, it definitely went viral—was that those comments happened to be more than a little ironic.

Wait, is Shapiro the “death panels” guy? Well, yes, he definitely is, which makes his recent comments feel somewhat hypocritical.

Shapiro is also a guy who’s tried to argue against women’s rights under the guise of being staunchly pro-life, even talking about saving baby Hitler.

But, really, let’s get back to the whole old people dying thing. That was, perhaps unsurprisingly, not the most welcome hypothetical argument to make at a time when lots of elderly folks are actually dying because of the coronavirus.

The Takeaway: When these are the tweets, you know you've said something that upset people.

What Happened: Just when you thought the 2020 election was finally down to two candidates, here comes the contrarian wannabe libertarian to make matters more complicated.

What Really Happened: The 2020 US presidential election was already shaping up to be a strange one, with Covid-19 impacting everything from campaigning to the vote itself. More than two-thirds of Americans believe that the coronavirus is going to disrupt the election in some way, with some wondering if the election will be postponed. (Democratic nominee Joe Biden is one of those worriers.) Meanwhile, President Trump is apparently losing his cool with his staff because polls aren’t looking great for him, although he’d never admit that publicly. Oh, and there are concerns over whether or not we’re going to be subject to foreign interference again, although China has publicly announced it’s not interested. In other words, there’s a lot going on. And, as of midweek, even more.

Wait. What? Yes, the 2020 election might have a spoiler candidate in Representative Justin Amash, who seems to want to run as the Libertarian candidate. It’s the latest step for the Republican who voted to impeach Trump last year. But don’t mistake him for a liberal in disguise; he also voted against making lynching a federal hate crime. He’s certainly not following an expected career path, that’s for sure.

So, what, exactly is Amash’s game here? Is he just a spoiler, or does he think he stands a chance? The jury is definitely out on that one for now.

Well, at least the electorate is behind him, right? Right?

Not coincidentally, “Ross Perot” started trending on Twitter not long after Amash announced his candidacy. Let’s be honest, “Ross Perot started trending on Twitter” is not really a phrase that has ever been uttered before, so we really should consider this an Amash bump. See? He’s already making a difference!

Something curious happened after a period of people tweeting about Perot’s failed but important presidential run in 1992 in somewhat disdainful terms, though: Ross Perot fans started showing up and supporting their guy, decades after the fact. (Or, perhaps, with the benefit of all that hindsight.)

Based on this anecdotal evidence, there’s an argument to be made that Amash really is on to something. Admittedly, it’s a something that people won’t really appreciate until 2058, but better late than never, perhaps.

The Takeaway: How best to describe Justin Amash to people who are painfully aware of presidential hopefuls but painfully unaware of any other politicians? Actually, this makes some kind of sense.

What Happened: Really, there are some people who should know better than to ask for questions when they’re aware of just how unpopular they are. Take, for example, the current attorney general of the United States, who made a mistake on Twitter last week.

What Really Happened: There are times when someone’s social media department does something that you just know is a bad idea immediately; such a bad idea, in fact, that you can’t quite believe it happened in the first place. To wit.

Yes, that’s right; the Justice Department tried to get #AskTheAG trending, with attorney general William Barr—the man who has been held in contempt of Congress for refusing to obey subpoenas; who suggested that supporting the police is a requirement for receiving police protection; who pushed back against his own Justice Department’s recommendations for a jail sentence for Trump supporter Roger Stone, instead favoring a shorter sentence; and who has been the subject of a letter with more than 2,000 ex-DOJ signatories asking for his resignation—theoretically answering questions using that hashtag.

You can guess how that went, can’t you?

There were even some topical questions!

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the hashtag soon became a story in itself, because, once again, this was not a good idea on behalf of whoever thought it up. Also to the surprise of absolutely no one, Barr answered none of these questions.

The Takeaway: There was, actually, a recurring question that people kept asking Barr. Here’s one of the more … polite versions.

What Happened: Trends come and go, but it seems that the internet’s love for a fine pair of gams remains a constant, judging by the otherwise inexplicable trend that swept Twitter this week.

What Really Happened: Continuing the tradition of each week of quarantine bringing up an entirely trivial, whimsical trend that will obsess the internet for a brief period before disappearing almost completely—whither Stanley Tucci thirstdom now?—last week saw a lot of people get pretty into legs, even if they were executing their love properly.

The legs belonged to Lisa from Korean band Blackpink, and they appeared in a dance video titled "LILI’s FILM #3" that she posted online. Days afterwards, this happened, because internet.

And then … things got weird.

The trend became so popular that countless explainers were written, as people struggled to understand just what was going on. (Or, for that matter, why the “did this work/did it work” text seemed so important to the whole thing—that, presumably, is simply going to have to be chalked up to some unexplainable magic.) The real answer to what’s going on, of course, is simply this: People are stuck inside all the time slowly losing their minds. If sticking Lisa’s legs on someone else’s body makes things better, let’s just embrace it and be jealous we’re not quite as viral just yet.

The Takeaway: This meme has run its course, though. It’s time for the next iteration, and—just maybe—this might be it. Does it work?

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