Former Vice President Mike Pence will be in Arizona Monday where he is expected to discuss border security issues and visit a place on the border where a section of barrier wall ends.
He’ll be accompanied on his travels through the state by GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, a friend and a frequent critic of how the Biden administration has handled border issues, reports The Arizona Republic.
His day will begin Monday morning with a briefing from Cochise County Sheriff Mark Daniels at Cochise College in Sierra Vista before heading the border tour. Monday afternoon, the former vice-president will speak to an invitation-only audience at the Arizona Commerce Authority in Phoenix.
The trip comes in the weeks before Arizona’s primary, and immigration and border security rank high in state voters’ concerns. Ducey, however, is not seeking reelection because of state term limits.
Pence’s trip comes days after the first prime-time hearing of the panel investigating the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol.
In that hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the vice-chairman of the committee said in an opening statement that then-President Donald Trump, when made aware of rioters’ chants to hang Pence, allegedly said he “deserves it,” which Trump has denied.
Both Pence and Ducey have infuriated Trump, however; Pence by refusing to reject President Joe Biden’s Electoral College votes on Jan. 6 and Ducey by not helping to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss in Arizona, leading Trump to denounce him as a “RINO,” or Republican in Name Only.
Pence is widely believed to be considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, where he could face a primary challenge against Trump. Neither has announced an official campaign.
Via Newsmax