Mike Pence will preside over Biden's final victory. 'Then he'll likely skip town.'
Vice President Mike Pence, as president of the Senate, has the awkward responsibility of overseeing President-elect Joe Biden's final victory — and President Trump's official defeat — with the formal counting of Electoral College votes at a special Jan. 6 joint session of Congress. "Then he'll likely skip town," Politico reports. "According to three U.S. officials familiar with the planning, the vice president is eyeing a foreign trip that would take him overseas for nearly a week, starting on Jan. 6."
Pence's tentative itinerary includes Bahrain, Israel, and Poland, and more stops may be added, Politico reports. The trip, which hasn't been finalized, is ostensibly designed to underscore the Trump administration's role in brokering diplomatic deals between Israel and a handful of Arab states, and it will helpfully bolster Pence's "already-strong credentials with the Christian right, which strongly supports Israel," Politico notes. But it also takes the vice president out of range of Trump's wrath following the final confirmation of Biden's win. "I suspect the timing is anything but coincidental," a Pence ally said.
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