Mike Pence can see the coronavirus arrows are pointing the wrong way.
A day after urging Republican lawmakers to put a positive spin on the pandemic, the vice president Saturday reportedly scrapped reelection campaign rallies planned this upcoming week in hard-hit Arizona and Florida.
The Trump reelection campaign claimed it was making the move "out of an abundance of caution," NBC News reported.
No such "caution" was seen as necessary in recent days when Trump held events in Arizona and in Oklahoma, which is also experiencing a severe coronavirus outbreak.
Pence told Republican senators on Wednesday to focus on "encouraging signs" even as the pandemic spiked toward new highs.
Pence canceled appearances in Tucson and Yuma, Ariz. on Tuesday and a bus tour in Florida on Thursday.
Florida, Arizona and Texas are among the states that are seeing huge spikes in coronavirus infection rates in recent days.
Even after canceling the campaign events, Pence is still planning to visit all three states to get an on-the-ground update on the pandemic.
The news came the same day Florida reported another 9,585 cases of coronavirus.
Arizona also set a new record for infections and has issued warnings about its nearly-full hospitals and intensive care units.
In a sign of how dire the situation is, Republican governors in Florida and Texas ordered bars to close in the first indication that the GOP may realize it pushed to reopen the economy too fast on Trump's urging.
The national coronavirus case total set an all-time record on Friday with 45,000 and was poised to shatter that record Saturday.
Deaths have declined significantly from their peak in April and have not rebounded as rapidly as case totals. Trump has suggested that's because the newly reported cases are not as serious but some doctors say it's just a matter of time before death tolls also shoot back up.
