Vice-President Mike Pence will preside over a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021 where the electoral votes will be tallied for the final confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. After that’s done, Mike Pence will leave the country.
Three U.S. officials familiar with the planning of Pence’s trip told Politico that Pence will likely leave the country on the same day he certifies Biden’s victory in Congress for a weeklong trip to the Middle East and Europe.
Advertisement
On the the surface, the trip may look like a part of the Trump administration’s role in brokering a series of diplomatic agreements to normalize relations between Israel and a handful of Arab countries, Politico reports. But, it also provides Mike Pence the opportunity of being as far away as possible from Trump and his supporters whose anger will reach a fever pitch after Biden’s victory is confirmed by the United States Congress, and by Mike Pence and Congressional Republicans no less.
One Pence ally told Politico:“I suspect the timing is anything but coincidental.”
It’s a tactic that Pence has employed post election since Trump and his allies have been claiming that there was widespread voter. He has been laying low and trying to distance himself from Trump’s post election mess.
Advertisement
One senior administration official told the Daily Beast: “It is an open secret [in Trumpworld] that Vice President Pence absolutely does not feel the same way about the legal effort as President Trump does. The vice president doesn’t want to go down with this ship…and believes much of the legal work has been unhelpful.”
Pence aides did not confirm the trip to Politico, but the news outlet obtained documents that showed Pence’s itinerary, with plans to stop in Bahrain, Israel and Poland with the possibility of more stops being added. A pre-advance team has already left to visit the planned stops to prepare for his international tour.
