Vance Prays for Pope, Turns Cheek on Political Disputes

When COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic in March 2020, Vice President J.D. Vance panicked.

Vance’s second child was just three weeks old, and he worried how bad the pandemic would get. He bought 900 rounds of ammunition at Dick’s Sporting Goods and two bags of rice at Walmart before retreating home.

“All right, we’re just going to wait this thing out,” Vance said Friday to laughter at the 20^th National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.

Vance led a prayer at the gathering for Pope Francis, who is suffering from pneumonia. And Vance recalled how the pontiff helped guide him through the pandemic, when Italians were dying en masse on ventilators, despite a political dispute now over immigration.