Vice President Mike Pence’s plans to visit New Hampshire were suddenly and unexpectedly cut short on Tuesday, according to Fox News, prompting America’s second most senior government official to return to the White House under mysterious circumstances.
Administration officials have supplied conflicting reasons for the last-minute change of plans, at first calling Pence’s decision to abandon his itinerary an “emergency callback,” before downplaying the situation and insisting that it was “no cause for alarm.”
Despite receiving multiple requests for clarification, the White House has continued to keep the public in the dark concerning the abrupt decision to abandon Pence’s plans.
Sudden change of plans
The vice president was supposed to deliver a speech on the opioid epidemic in Salem on Tuesday morning, but the crowd waiting for Pence to arrive was disappointed to learn that Air Force Two was no longer en route to the roundtable conference. An announcer at the event informed the audience that the vice president had been recalled due to an emergency.
“We do have a situation where the vice president was called back to Washington,” said Randy Gentry, a representative from Pence’s office.
Gentry’s remarks caused some to fear that the vice president’s flight had to be diverted. However, Pence’s press secretary, Alyssa Farah, took to Twitter to clear up any misunderstanding and to downplay the seriousness of the diversion.
The @VP never left Washington, DC. There was no “emergency callback.” Something came up that required the VP to stay in DC. We’ll reschedule NH shortly. https://t.co/h270JCEUIG
— Alyssa Farah (@VPPressSec) July 2, 2019
Mum is the word
Scheduled to land in New Hampshire around 11:30 a.m. EDT, Pence was instead spotted entering White House grounds in a motorcade at around 11:55 a.m. The vice president exited his vehicle and was seen walking into the West Wing just before noon.
Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short made it clear that the vice president had actually boarded Air Force Two, although the jet never departed the airport. According to ABC White House correspondent Tara Palmeri, Short said that the public would find out about the source of the canceled trip “in a few weeks.”
Pence’s COS Marc Short told @meridithmcgraw that the Vice President was on the plane but it didn’t take off. Then he turned around, back to the White House. He told her we’ll find out “in a few weeks” what happened.
— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) July 2, 2019
If Short’s explanation wasn’t vague enough, another White House official ruled out any health-related concerns for either Pence or President Donald Trump. Without providing any details, the senior staffer also mentioned that the change of plans was not related to matters of national security.
Guessing game
Twitter was abuzz Tuesday afternoon with people speculating on why Pence’s New Hampshire trip was canceled. Some even posited that Russia and the U.S. were on the brink of war after a Russian deepwater research vessel caught fire, killing all 14 sailors on board.
Additionally, Pence’s return to the White House comes amid rising tensions with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which shot down an unmanned drone flying over international waters last Thursday. Rhetoric from both nations has escalated since this event, and the U.S. has been orchestrating a troop buildup in the region.
President Trump was at the White House when Pence returned Tuesday morning. There were no major events scheduled for the day.
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