Pence's abrupt travel cancellation sparks speculation

Mike Pence isn’t exactly an international man of mystery.

But his abrupt cancellation of a planned trip to New Hampshire on Tuesday morning set off a ground swell of speculation inside the Beltway — prompting reporters and pundits to contemplate the potentially global ramifications of the vice president’s sudden change of plans.

Pence was previously scheduled to travel to Manchester, N.H., to meet with former patients and alumni of the Granite Recovery Center at its headquarters, and deliver remarks on America’s opioid epidemic.

But his office confirmed to

Twitter

that Air Force Two never left the ground, and deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters that Pence had entered the West Wing.

“Something came up that requires the VP to remain in DC. There is no cause for concern,” Gidely said,

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Yamiche Alcindor of PBS NewsHour.

Alyssa Farah, Pence’s press secretary, shared a similar talking point on Twitter. “Something came up that required the @VP to remain in Washington, DC,” Farah

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createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");. “It’s no cause for alarm. He looks forward to rescheduling the trip to New Hampshire very soon.”

Farah posted again roughly an hour later,

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Tuesday afternoon: “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.”

News of Pence’s change of plans came as contemporaneous reports surfaced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had altered his schedule to attend a meeting with Kremlin Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. A fire aboard a Russian submarine had killed 14 sailors earlier in the day.

But a senior administration official

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White House pool reporters that Pence’s cancellation “is not health related for the VP or President,” and “[n]othing related to national security."

Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine