Vice President Mike Pence was invited, not instructed, by the president to stay at a Trump-owned resort during his trip to Ireland over the weekend, a top aide to the vice president said Tuesday, accommodations for which taxpayers will foot the bill.
“I don’t think it was a request, like a command,” Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, told reporters. “I think that it was a suggestion.”
Pence has been the subject of criticism from Democratic lawmakers for his decision to stay Monday night at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg during his time in Ireland. But Short said the decision to overnight on the opposite side of Ireland from Dublin was made based on Pence’s ancestral connections to the region, as well as the logistical ease for the Secret Service of protecting a property it is familiar with.
From Trump Doonbeg, Pence embarked on a roughly hour-long flight Tuesday morning to Dublin to meet Irish President Michael Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
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Vice President Mike Pence was invited, not instructed, by the president to stay at a Trump-owned resort during his trip to Ireland over the weekend, a top aide to the vice president said https://t.co/voUMvQ4hkP
— POLITICO (@politico) September 3, 2019
This is absurd. And every single correspondence about travel to Trump resorts should be subpoenaed by House Dems. https://t.co/cXGgaedGfy
— Tim Miller (@Timodc) September 2, 2019
NEW: Trump, Pence, & aides have repeatedly invoked the Secret Service when explaining why they stay in Trump resorts, arguing that it's easier for law enforcement to secure them. But Secret Service vets say that's not true, and can actually make it harder. https://t.co/BXVpUyycZj
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) September 3, 2019
I am looking forward to how Hugh Hewitt and other supposedly "serious" Trump defenders, defend this. https://t.co/NNuD17kPQK
— David Burbach (@dburbach) September 4, 2019
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