Vice President Mike Pence has seemingly canceled a planned vacation to Florida amid President Donald Trump‘s efforts to contest the results of the 2020 election. The vice president had been scheduled to arrive at Southwest Florida International Airport Tuesday evening for a planned vacation on Sanibel, an island near Fort Myers where he has vacationed in the past, according to multiple outlets. He was set to remain on vacation through Saturday. Now, however, it appears that the trip has been called off.
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) advisory was lifted, and Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno has also confirmed that the trip has been canceled for an unknown reason, WINK News reports. According to The Washington Post, the vice president remained in Washington on Tuesday, where he gave a presentation to Republican senators detailing the specific legal actions being taken by the Trump administration. It is believed that Pence will remain in the capital. His office has not responded to requests for comment.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The trip would have come exactly a week after Election Day, which saw a record-breaking number of Americans casting ballots. On Saturday, the race was called for former Vice President Joe Biden, who, as of this posting, is projected to have won 290 electoral votes to Trump’s 214, with 270 votes needed to win. Biden has been declared president-elect by all major media networks. The results, however, have been contested, and neither Trump nor Pence have conceded, and instead are launching legal efforts to contest the results of several states — including those in Georgia and Pennsylvania where the Trump campaign recently filed a lawsuit seeking to block the certification of Biden’s win in the state.
In the days since the election, Trump has attempted to sow doubt in the election results, alleging widespread instances of voter fraud and taking issue with mail-in ballots. Pence, meanwhile, has largely refrained from raising the same worries, though he has raised the call to count “legal” votes in battleground states where mail-in ballots are still being counted.
Along with his refusal to concede, it has also been reported that the Trump administration is refusing to authorize a presidential transition. According to CBS News, The Biden-Harris team is moving forward regardless, with Biden stating that the delay in formally recognizing the presidential outcome is “not of much consequence.” The President-elect confirmed, “we’re already beginning the transition. We’re well underway,” adding that Trump’s refusal to concede is “an embarrassment” and something that “will not help the president’s legacy.”
