Where is Mike Pence? VP missing in action as Trump administration rejects election loss

In the days after Donald Trump lost the election, his vice president appeared to go to ground

Whereas he appeared on the campaign trail with Donald Trump right up to the eve of election day, Mike Pence has kept a low profile in public since the results began filtering in – and even as the Trump administration fought back hard against indications the president was losing.

And the day after the race was called for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the vice president’s public schedule appeared to be empty. He has not tweeted since the race was called.

At the time of writing, this makes him somewhat unusual among the president’s allies.

While some Republicans have begun distancing themselves from the president and his false claims that the election was stolen from him, others – such as senator Lindsey Graham and much of the top White House staff – seem determined to fight it until the bitter end, doubling down on the president’s statements (most of them issued via Twitter).

Mr Pence, for now, is in neither camp, raising questions about what he will do next even as it remains unclear  He is not usually kept in the background by the administration, and has no particular record of breaking with the president publicly at politically tense moments.

Follow: US election and aftermath

However, he has more than once chosen to sequester himself away rather than fight the president’s corner as a disastrous story unfolds.

Despite being a devout socially conservative Christian, he stood by Mr Trump in October 2016 over the scandal of the notorious Access Hollywood tape in which the then-candidate bragged about sexually assaulting women.

There was reportedly a Republican Party plan to immediately dump Mr Trump and replace him with Mr Pence at the top of the ticket, and more than a few top-tier Republicans openly called for it.

However, Mr Pence’s response was more measured: he put out a statement condemning Mr Trump’s words and then withdrew from public appearances, at first even shunning contact with his running mate to pray with his wife.

He insulated himself from public events and the press corps for days after the scandal broke, and eventually returned to the campaign with a message of unity demanding voters get behind Mr Trump to keep Hillary Clinton out of power.

Mr Pence’s office has been contacted for comment.