Former VP Mike Pence visiting Minneapolis, Cedar Rapids Wednesday
MINNEAPOLIS -- Former Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to visit Minneapolis -- as well as Cedar Rapids, Iowa -- Wednesday as he continues mulling a possible presidential run.
According to Advancing American Freedom, Pence's own policy and advocacy organization, the visit comes under the auspices of "defending parents' rights." The group's announcement explicitly references a court case related to a school district in the Cedar Rapids area concerning transgender student policies.
According to a Cedar Rapids-area news outlet, the policy at the center of the suit would allow children to make decisions on their gender identity without parental input, and would give them the option of using restrooms and locker rooms corresponding with their gender identity.
The impending visits were announced last week, on the same day as the FBI began conducting a consensual search at Pence's Carmel, Indiana, home, seeking any classified documents.
Pence was recently subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the investigations into former President Donald Trump. Sources told CBS News in November that the Justice Department had reached out to Pence in connection to Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and Jan. 6, 2021.
On Tuesday, the DFL Party chair Ken Martin issued the following statement on Pence's impending visit: "Vice President Pence will never be anything more than Donald Trump's most embarrassing lapdog. If Pence thinks his record of failure in the White House, his attacks on LGBTQ Americans, and his repeated efforts to cut Social Security and Medicare will help him win the presidency, he's in for a very long two years."