When Donald Trump appointed Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the US government’s response to the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, he said the former Indiana governor had “a certain talent for this.”

Pence indeed has executive experience during a public health emergency: he was governor from 2013 to 2017, when an HIV outbreak struck parts of his state. But his response to that crisis — one different in several important ways from coronavirus — is again under scrutiny as he works to coordinate the US effort to protect against worldwide calamity that is still unfolding.

And during Trump’s Saturday afternoon press conference about coronavirus, a reporter flat-out asked Trump about Pence’s failure to manage a public health epidemic.

You can see Pence behind Trump shake his head as the reporter asked the question, and Trump’s response was terrible and didn’t answer the question.

Pence then came to the podium and just deflected with a non-answer. Sadly the reporter either didn’t follow up or wasn’t allowed another question.

WATCH:

.@AndrewFeinberg asks Trump a great question about why Americans should trust Pence to oversee the coronavirus response given that he allowed an HIV outbreak to spiral out of control in Indiana. Pence downplays the situation by saying the outbreak happened in "a very small town." pic.twitter.com/IAOuQr7JV9

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 29, 2020