Vice President Mike Pence was all set to fly to New Hampshire to deliver a speech about opioid addiction last week when his travel plans were suddenly canceled, igniting a flurry of speculation.
Asked Friday about Pence’s mysterious change in plans, President Donald Trump told the press that “there was a problem” in New Hampshire and that more details will come out “in about a week or two.”
Just wait
As Trump prepared to board Marine One for a trip to his Bedminster golf resort for the weekend, the president paused for a question and answer period with White House reporters. Asked why the vice president had canceled the trip to New Hampshire, Trump replied, “You’ll know in about two weeks.”
“There was a very — a very interesting problem that they had in New Hampshire. And I can’t tell you about it,” he said. “It was a very — but it had nothing to do with (the) White House. There was a problem up there. And I won’t go into what the problem was, but you’ll see in about a week or two.”
Air Force Two never took off
The New Hampshire Union Leader reported on Tuesday that Vice President Pence hadn’t even taken off yet in Air Force Two for the short hop to New Hampshire when the decision was suddenly made not to go, which conflicted with other reports which suggested that Pence’s flight had been diverted from the destination in mid-air to make an emergency return to Washington D.C.
The Union Leader report seemed to match the announcement of the cancellation on Twitter by Pence’s spokeswoman, Alyssa Farah, who tweeted, “Something came up that required the @VP to remain in Washington, DC. It’s no cause for alarm. He looks forward to rescheduling the trip to New Hampshire very soon.”
In a second tweet, Farah wrote, “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.”
Attendees disappointed
As for the people in New Hampshire who’d been waiting to meet with and hear from the vice president, the Union Leader reported that they were disappointed, but understanding.
Randy Gentry, a representative of the Pence team already in New Hampshire, had told the gathered crowd at the Granite Recovery Centers headquarters in Manchester, “We’re going to cancel today’s event. It does not mean we’re not going to come back, but we do have a situation where the vice president was recalled back to Washington D.C.”
“We thank you very much for attending. We’re sorry for this. This doesn’t happen very often, but we appreciate your attendance today,” he added. Later, other staffers on the team assured reporters that there had been no “emergency” involved in the decision, but merely a “situation” that required the vice president’s presence.
The Union Leader noted that The Washington Post, citing unnamed administration officials, had reported that there’d been a “security concern” with regard to the planned trip, but reiterated that the security concern had nothing to do with Vice President Pence himself.
International intrigue, or something more mundane?
Of course, with so few details, speculation immediately ran wild about potential conflicts or significant issues with a rival nation like Iran or Russia, or perhaps some sort of threat against or serious issue with the event, venue or other attendees in New Hampshire.
Following Trump’s cryptic comments on the matter Friday, the latter bit of speculation seems a bit more plausible than a moment of international intrigue being the reason for the canceled speech.
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