Vice President Mike Pence’s office blamed the uproar over his decision to go more than 100 miles out of his way during his trip to Ireland to stay at a Trump property on “misreporting.”
In a new statement shared by New York Times’ Maggie Haberman on Tuesday evening, Pence’s office said that the vice president wanted to stay near his ancestral hometown while in Ireland and argued the Pence family had stayed at the same property during a visit in 2013, before the Trump Organization acquired it. Pence’s office said the vice president had always planned to stay one night in Doonbeg, but Hurricane Dorian threw a wrench in official plans, the statement said.
“When Hurricane Dorian required our office to change the schedule on short notice, the decision was made to overnight in Doonbeg for two nights to accommodate official business and public events on both coasts,” the statement said. “At no time did the President direct our office to stay at his Doonbeg resort and any reporting to the contrary is false.”
New Pence team statement on his Doonbeg stay after hours of controversy over his entourage staying several hours from his Dublin meetings: pic.twitter.com/UFy6XvCQZz
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 4, 2019
The statement slightly contradicts what Pence’s own Chief of Staff Marc Short told reporters earlier this week.
“I don’t think it was a request, like a command … I think it was a suggestion,” Short said. “It’s like when we went through the trip, it’s like, well, he’s going to Doonbeg because that’s where the Pence family is from. It’s like, ‘Well, you should stay at my place.'”
