On one hand, Mayo is technically private property and they would indeed have the legal right and authority to deny entry to anyone who didn’t follow their policies.
On the other hand, I could see how this would play out, having observed first-hand from the sidelines a few presidential and vice-presidential arrivals at events. As someone mentioned in the thread, the Secret Service shows up and preps everything and controls the area. The local authorities meet and coordinate with them and the PR people. They go over the rules and timing. Then the VIP breaks things and everybody scrambles to adjust - including the Secret Service.
I could see how it could shake out: even though Mayo’s representatives made clear that masks were required, and both the Secret Service and Pence’s people agreed to it, the moment Pence said, “I’m not wearing a mask. This is going to be televised,” his people would spring into action to back him, and the Secret Service would probably be pissed but stoically go along. The Mayo folks would be horrified, but what are they going to do? All Pence would have to do is keep moving and they would be virtually powerless to stop him. Basically, the only way they’d be able to would be to have staff block the hallway physically and make a huge scene and statement. It would be a standoff and horrible PR, regardless of political leanings.
I have no doubt the WH protection detail is hoping Biden wins the election so they don’t have absolute intractable assholes completely dominating their workload.
Well, they COULD tweet not just (like they deleted) that they told the VP in advance that he needed a mask, they could tweet that it was irresponsible of him and they will never allow him in the building again.
The kind of experts who run the social media strategy for places like the Mayo Clinic know very well that once a tweet is out there, it doesn’t matter if you delete it. People will know, and you get the deniability of having deleted it. That tweet was absolutely strategically crafted to be both straightforward factual and condemning. If it had been partisan like you suggest, they would have had to take further steps, like firing the social media strategist, in order to save face with the administration. This way, they get to have their cake and eat it, too.
Passing a judgmental statement like “irresponsible“ in a public forum would definitely come off as partisan, even in this case where it’s an understatement.
The fact that absolutely everyone else around him was wearing a mask didn’t suggest anything to him? That would be even worse than not wearing the mask in the first place.
please to notice the badging upon both of the starboard most people ! guy in red tie appearing to be explaining to the veep and the person seated in the blue both seem to have identical badge styling !! most institutions , i think , would tend to have rather distinct badging for staff , visitors , and patients ?? so ,staged maybe ?? perhaps intentionally conveying a false premise or ?? yellow wristband , green perhaps adhesive badge and blue clip on badge ?? perhaps neither was staff nor patient ??
