Vice President Mike Pence announced Wednesday he will cut short his trip to Central and South America by a day, and return to the U.S. Thursday instead of Friday.
“We prepare to end our trip a little bit early tomorrow in Panama,” Pence told reporters while in Chile. “I will return home [to Washington] tomorrow.”
Pence and his wife were scheduled to travel to Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Panama from Aug. 13-18. The early return to the states comes as President Trump has struggled to please the public with his handling of the Charlottesville protests and car attack last weekend.
The change was made to facilitate a meeting about South Asia with Trump at Camp David on Friday.
Pence said he has “been praying” for the country and the domestic feud over race relations will not worsen. He said he and his wife have also been praying for the 32-year-old woman who was killed when a car struck her and a group of counter protesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville last Saturday.
“What happened in Charlottesville was a tragedy,” Pence said. “Today as I am here in Chile — our hearts are in Charlottesville.”
Pence issued the harshest rebuke of white supremacist groups in the immediate aftermath of the incident and was applauded for coming to a conclusion that Trump shared Monday, but walked back Tuesday.
Pence cleared his weekend schedule and will no longer be attending an event for Ed Gillespie, the GOP nominee in Virginia’s gubernatorial election.
