WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — The COVID-19 pandemic, stimulus checks, and the 2020 presidential race. Those are the topics discussed Thursday in a one-on-one interview with Vice President Mike Pence.

Eyewitness News spoke with Pence on the phone late Thursday afternoon. The first question dealt with the administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. There has been criticism heard across the country that the administration mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic, but the vice president defended the actions taken by the White House.

“We’ve been able to deliver hundreds of millions of personal protection equipment to our hospital workers. Ventilators all across the country. Any American who ever required a ventilator has been delivered one and at the President’s direction our great pharmaceutical companies have developed therapeutics and medicines that are saving lives this very day and we are well on our way to developing a vaccine,” Pence said.

When asked about additional stimulus checks and who should get them, Pence replied: “From very early on Andy, President Trump made it clear we are going to do whatever it takes to get American families and American businesses through this challenging time and we are in negotiations with Congress as we enter another phase of the recovery legislation. Those discussions will be going on over the course of the next two weeks.”