Second lady Karen Pence asserted on Thursday morning that her husband, Vice President Mike Pence, was unaware of the Mayo Clinic’s face mask policy until after his visit with staff and a patient. Earlier this week, the veep drew outrage for flouting the clinic’s rules, prompting the facility’s Twitter account to note in a since-deleted tweet that it “had informed @VP of the masking policy prior to his arrival today.”

Asked on Fox & Friends why the vice president didn’t wear a mask, Mrs. Pence replied: “It was actually after he left Mayo Clinic that he found out that they had a policy of asking everyone to wear a mask.” Outside of the facility’s tweet contradicting this claim, CNN reported that the VP’s office was briefed days in advance of the clinic’s requirement on masks to guard against coronavirus transmission.