Colbert, Letterman Rail Against Mike Pence for Visiting Mayo Clinic With No Mask
and , the past and current hosts of The Late Show, both slammed Vice President Mike Pence for visiting the Mayo Clinic and ignoring its face mask policy meant to halt the spread of COVID-19.
On The Late Show Tuesday, Colbert criticized Pence’s overall handling of the pandemic as head of the White House’s coronavirus task force and used his Mayo Clinic visit as a prime example. After showing the footage of Pence at the hospital, the only person in the room not wearing a mask, Colbert cracked, “Hold on, I’ve got a mask for you right here,” before hoisting a middle finger aloft inside a face mask.
Colbert added that after Pence’s visit, the Mayo Clinic tweeted out that it had informed the vice president of its face mask policy. “Wow, that must have been harsh for Mike Pence to get roasted by his idol,” Colbert deadpanned, “mayo.”
Letterman was equally enraged over the Pence situation, which he discussed during an interview with on the latter’s SiriusXM show Wednesday, April 29th. “Now if you go to the Mayo Clinic because you have COVID-19, you really have it,” Letterman said. “He takes time off from his gig as a mannequin, and he’s walking around without a mask taunting these poor people who are bedridden and wearing a mask. To me, that is just taunting people who are ill, to see that guy walking around in his $40 suit walking around in the Mayo Clinic without a mask.”
Pence, of course, isn’t alone in refusing to wear a face mask, with President Donald Trump also declining to do so. Letterman joked to Stern that he had some insight into why the president in particular was declining the mask, saying, “I have a buddy of mine who works at the State Department who’s in charge of semi-secret information and he told me that his whole thing with Trump-y and the mask — he won’t wear a mask because they can’t figure out how to attach it to his hair.”