Where’s Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence?

Outgoing US Vice President Mike Pence. [Courtesy, Standard]

Much is talked about US President Donald Trump who has refused to concede defeat to Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden who has garnered 290 electoral college against Trump’s 214 votes, sailing past the 270 needed to win the race.

Trump has demanded a recount and filed cases to that effect.

But on the other side, details of the whereabouts of a possibly pensive Trump deputy Mike Pence are scanty.

On Monday, the New York Post reported that the Federal Aviation Administration (FDA) had a scheduled trip for the second in command to head to Sanibel, Florida, for a ‘much-needed’ rest. The vacation starts Tuesday through Saturday.

Pence has remained supportive to his boss espousing the ‘stop the count’ mantra and pushing for the legal action to allow for the probe on the tallying of the results.

“I stand with President Donald Trump. We must count every legal vote,” he tweeted on November 6.

The push for the recount has built up among the Republicans calling for the investigation to serve justice to President Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joined the bandwagon slamming the press for prematurely declaring 77-year-old Biden the President-elect.

"All legal ballots must be counted. Any illegal ballots must not be counted...the projections and commentary of the press do not get veto power over the legal rights of any citizen, including the president."

Monday Pence was back at it on his Twitter account heaping praises on the breakthrough by Pfizer in developing a Covid-19 vaccine with a 90 per cent efficacy.

Mr Pence had to fight backlash after his allegation that the vaccine was a product of collaboration between the White House-driven Operation Warp Speed program and the drugmaker.

“The White House coronavirus taskforce met today to discuss BIG news out of Pfizer this morning. Under President Donald Trump, we are working at Warp Speed to deliver a safe and effective vaccine. This President is delivering for the American people,” he tweeted.

The pharmaceutical denied this allegation with The Washington Post reporting that: “Pfizer, unlike its competitors, did not join Operation Warp Speed, the government initiative designed to erase the financial risk of vaccine and therapeutics development by providing funding to companies and helping coordinate the trials”.

Pfizer Vice President Dr Kathrin Jansen is reported as telling New York Times that the company never received money from external sources for the program, and never partnered with US government.