President Donald Trump says he no longer spurns handshakes — but his second in command, Vice President Mike Pence, is sticking to elbow bumps amid the U.S. coronavirus outbreak.
Pence greeted Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee and other local officials Thursday with elbow bumps in lieu of handshakes as he traveled to the state to discuss its coronavirus response.
Twitter pictures showed Pence stepping off Air Force Two in Tacoma, where he gave the elbow greeting to Inslee and members of Congress who were there to greet him.
Pence offered the same greeting to officials at the state's emergency operations center and asked workers how they were holding up, The Hill reported.
Pence, as leader of the federal government's coronavirus response team, also traveled to Minnesota on Thursday, meeting with executives at 3M to discuss production of masks, respirators and other materials, The Hill noted.
In addition to the tour of the emergency operations center, the vice president was scheduled to take part in a roundtable discussion and a press briefing with Inslee before departing for the return flight to Washington, D.C.
Inslee had been using the elbow bump greeting, urging citizens to "take care of your elbows" earlier in the day, The Hill reported.
While Pence was visiting Washington, Trump was at a Fox News Town Hall, where he spoke candidly about his famous germaphobia.
"If there was ever a time you could convince people not to shake hands this could be it," Trump said.
"I shake anyone's hand now. I'm proud of it," he continued, before adding, "but it is a little bit of a problem."
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