Over two full days and two stops — the first in Jerusalem, the second in Rome — the vice president largely escaped the impeachment vortex consuming the nation’s capital some 5,000 miles away. Pence, by contrast, cut a calmer and more sanguine visage, ostensibly unconcerned by the constitutional controversy raging back home. In August 2017, Pence left for a week-long trip to Latin America immediately after deadly violence at a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Pence then entered the Sistine Chapel, which was already thick with tourists, some of whom momentarily averted their eyes from Michelangelo’s fresco to gape at the vice president. The vice president smiled before turning back to his tour guide, who made a good-natured gesture to signify that the eager tourist was just another one of the “Americans” — like Pence, far from home.

Source: Washington Post January 24, 2020 18:05 UTC