Democrat Joe Biden won both the popular vote and the Electoral College in the 2020 presidential election, but the final confirmation of his victory over President Donald Trump will take place on January 6, when the U.S. Congress is scheduled to certify and affirm the results.
Vice President Mike Pence will have to oversee the session and, according to a Thursday report from Politico , he will most likely “skip town” after formally declaring Biden the winner.
According to officials familiar with Pence’s plans, in order to avoid drawing the ire of Republican voters — many of whom believe in Trump’s evidence-free theories about widespread voter fraud — he will leave Washington immediately for the Middle East and Europe.
The vice president is reportedly looking to visit Bahrain, Israel and Poland. This would be his first trip abroad since January this year, when he traveled to Jerusalem, Israel and Rome, Italy.
Though the trip may seem as an attempt to highlight the Trump administration’s foreign policy accomplishments, it could also allow Pence to solidify his support among Christian conservatives — who support Israel — and make it easier for him to distance himself from Trump’s baseless claims about the 2020 election.
“It’s a tactic Pence has used to navigate the final days of Trump’s presidency: stay out of the spotlight and insulate himself from his boss’s baseless election-fraud crusade, all while still finding ways to burnish his own credentials and technically toe the party line.”
As the publication noted, in recent weeks, Pence has mostly focused on handling the coronavirus pandemic and helping Republican Georgia Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue keep their seats in the upper chamber.
Both Loeffler and Perdue will have to fend off formidable Democratic challengers. If they fail to do so, Democrats will win control of the Senate.
Trump’s attempts to overturn the results through the courts have failed. Most recently, the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas, blocking Trump’s legal path to reverse his reelection loss.
But Republicans have not yet given up. A group of GOP lawmakers is reportedly trying to push their colleagues to reject enough electoral votes to block Biden from becoming the commander-in-chief. This “could easily leave Pence in an excruciating situation,” Politico wrote.
One White House official said that this won’t be easy Trump and Pence to “stomach” and “compared the task at hand for Pence — which will include opening and counting electoral votes sent from each state — to someone delivering a death notice.”
