Trump campaign postpones Pence's scheduled appearances out of caution amid record spikes in US COVID-19 cases

• The Trump reelection campaign has postponed Vice President Mike Pence's upcoming events in Arizona and Florida out of an "abundance of caution" as those states — among others — see their COVID-19 cases spike.
• The vice president on Friday falsely claimed the US had flattened the curve despite contradictory evidence from the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
• On Friday, the US reported more than 40,000 new COVID-19 cases — the highest single-day increase reported since the pandemic began.

The campaign for President Donald Trump's re-election on Saturday postponed upcoming events in both Arizona and Florida as both states report record increases in COVID-19 cases.

The campaign said it was postponing Vice President Mike Pence's scheduled campaign stops in the states "out of an abundance of caution," according to NBC News reporter Josh Lederman. Business Insider confirmed that Pence's events have been postponed.

Pence is still expected to visit both Arizona and Florida to meet with state leaders, but the meetings will be considered White House events and not campaign stops, according to NBC News' Jacob Gardenswartz.

The move comes one day after a press conference where the vice president falsely claimed that the US had flattened the curve as the nation reported its highest single-day increase in new cases of all time.

"As we stand here today, all 50 states and territories across this country are opening up safely and responsibly," Pence said Friday after a meeting with the White House Coronavirus Task Force. "The truth is, we did slow the spread. We flattened the curve."

As Business Insider previously reported, 14 charts from the White House's own task force showed that the spread of COVID-19 was quickly increasing, particularly among heavily populated areas in southern states. Some leaders, including the president, have blamed increases on increased testing capacity, though experts have said that's not accurate as states like Texas and Florida have reported a higher share of positives among test results, Business Insider's Aylin Woodward noted.

Florida and 10 other states broke their records for the average number of cases reported daily over the past week, according to The Washington Post. At least 40,173 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Friday, according to CNN via data analyzed by Johns Hopkins University. Other estimates were higher. NBC News found that more than 45,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported nationwide on Friday.

On Saturday, Arizona reported 3,591 new cases, tying its all-time record set on Tuesday, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. On Friday, Florida broke its all-time record with nearly 9,000 reported new cases of COVID-19. As Business Insider previously reported, that was the highest single-day increase reported by any US state since April 15.

While the campaign has postponed Pence's events, the president on June 20 held an in-person rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma against the advice of health experts. The event had at least 6,200 attendees, though the Trump campaign claimed about double that attended. It was Trump's first campaign event since the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the US and forced him to pause his famed Make American Great Again rallies.