Vice President Mike Pence has canceled plans to campaign with Republican Virginia gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie this coming weekend.
A Pence aide told CNN's Ryan Nobles that the vice president wanted to "open up his plans" upon his return to the U.S.
https://twitter.com/ryanobles/status/897891659609985027?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwtvr.com%2F2017%2F08%2F16%2Fpence-and-gillespie%2F
This even was scheduled for Sat.. @VADemocrats were calling on Gillespie to pull out of the event. @VP's office he's "opening up his plans." https://t.co/hSHBePrSMA
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) August 16, 2017
.@VP's decision to cancel events on Saturday came from the pool. Gillespie's camp said he's not making policy comments "through Saturday".
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) August 16, 2017
Pence's cancellation follows President Donald Trump's controversial comments Tuesday about "fine people" in Charlottesville, Va. siding with white nationalists.
That led Virginia Democrats to call on Gillespie to cancel the event.
But Nobles said the Gillespie camp pointed him to Pence's office for the reason behind the cancellation, saying "so it seems to be a VP decision."
Gillespie called out Neo-Nazis and white supremacists by name in wake of the violent rally in Charlottesville over the weekend.
"We have stared down racism, and Nazism, and white supremacy before, and we will stare it down again, we are staring it down now. We will emerge from this stronger as a Commonwealth, and I believe, as a country," Gillespie told WVIR-29, the NBC affiliate in Charlottesville.