Vice President Mike Pence told Jake Tapper on CNN Sunday it was “understandable” that Donald Trump Jr. accused Democrats of wanting “millions of people” to die of coronavirus to make the president look bad.

Tapper played a Fox News tape of Trump Jr. on Friday calling it a “new level of sickness” for the Democrats to hope for the death of Americans “so that they can end Donald Trump’s streak of winning.”

Tapper asked Pence: “Can we agree neither Democrats nor Republicans want Americans to get the coronavirus and die from it? That does seem like very extreme rhetoric.”

The vice president could not agree. As he called for Americans not to politicize the issue, he politicized it and slammed Democratic attacks about the administration’s handling of coronavirus — without a concrete example.

“This is no time for politics,” Pence said. “Frankly, I think that was Don Jr.’s point — that there has been some very strong rhetoric directed at the president by some members of Congress.”

He said Trump’s eldest son “responding to the kind of things that have been hurled is understandable.” Asked about the same Trump Jr. comment earlier on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Pence called it “justified.”

The vice president also said the president has insisted on setting “politics aside on this.”

Trump characterized Americans’ mounting fear of the spreading COVID-19 as the Democrats’ “new hoax” at a campaign rally Friday in South Carolina. He boasted that “we’ve lost nobody” to the disease. Over the weekend, two coronavirus deaths were reported in Washington state.

Here’s Trump at his rally tonight in South Carolina dismissing worries about the coronavirus as the “new hoax” pic.twitter.com/Q58d7dI1cb — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 29, 2020

Check out Pence’s interview (and Don Jr.’s slam against the Democrats) in the video up top.