On Wednesday, Vice President and somewhat-sentient Trump skin tag Mike Pence flew to pandemic-awash Florida. Normally he would be accompanied by a pool reporter from the White House press corps, just in case something resembling "news" happened during his trip; this time, he was not. Instead, the position was filled by the vice president for communications of the Heritage Foundation, a "conservative" think tank that has become considerably more influential in White House staffing and policy than Donald Trump has been. Heritage Foundation executive Robert Bluey is also the "executive editor" of the Foundation's news site, The Daily Signal, and it was in that role that he played the part of a pool reporter during the trip.
Now, Robert Bluey is not a member of the White House press corps. He is not a practicing journalist. He's a Trump-allied think tank "communications" guru. In anything approaching normal times a Literal Partisan Hack acting as pool reporter would be considered weird, but it turns out there's a good reason Bluey was brought along for the ride: Nobody from the White House press corps, reports The New York Times, was willing to go.
That's right, kids. It turns out taking a multi-hour flight to a pandemic hotspot next to the Mike Pence, the Tapioca Riefenstahl, a guy whose own office constitutes its own coronavirus hotspot, to hear him talk yet again about how Trump is absolutely the most God-fearing sack of crap he's ever known is not a hot ticket. The White House Correspondent's Association requested a volunteer to cover the trip, reports the Times, and got zero takers.
So Pence's office chose Heritage guy to fill the role of ... well, luggage, mostly. He did turn in a pool report, though. As you might expect, no news was made.