Pence's abrupt travel cancellation sparks speculation

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

But his abrupt cancellation of a scheduled 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 slated 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 CNN 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,” Gidley said, according to 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,” she wrote. “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, tweeting Tuesday afternoon that Pence "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 the adjustments to Pence’s agenda came as contemporaneous reports surfaced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had shifted his own schedule to attend a meeting with Kremlin Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. A fire aboard a Russian submarine killed 14 sailors earlier in the day.

But a senior administration official told White House pool reporters that Pence’s cancellation was not "related to national security."

Marc Short, Pence's chief of staff, said the vice president was aboard Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews before he was summoned to the White House, where he and President Donald Trump took part in "other high level meetings," according to ABC News.

The issue that caused Pence to cancel his New Hampshire trip was "not a national security" concern, Short said, though Pence discussed it with Trump "briefly." Short told ABC that members of the media would learn "in a few weeks" what led to Pence's reversal.

The issue at hand also was not health-related and "not a personal or family issue," Short said, adding that no one within the administration would soon be fired, according to Bloomberg.

Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine