Vice President Mike Pence hosted a "Make America Great Again" rally in New Hampshire Tuesday to highlight what the campaign called the Trump administration's "historic accomplishments."
It's the latest presidential campaign event in the swing state, which last week saw visits from first lady Melania Trump and the spouses of both members of the Democratic ticket.
Pence got the crowd at Gilford's Laconia Municipal Airport to cheer "fill that seat" in reference to the Supreme Court seat opened up by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
There's a pitched battle going on in Washington over whether the Senate should vote to confirm whoever President Donald Trump nominates to the court -- he's promised to name his pick Saturday -- after the body's Republicans denied President Barack Obama's choice to fill Antonin Scalia's seat because the vote, saying then that it wasn't right to hold the vote in an election year.
Citing the Constitution, Pence sounded off on the issue Tuesday: "The president shall appoint judges to the Supreme Court. And before the week is out, after we honor the life and memory of Justice Ginsburg, Preisdent Donald Trump will do just that."
His remarks also touched on the topics that have been part of his regular stump speeches, including the administration's jobs record, opposition to socialism and support for police officers. He called on the crowd to spread the story of the Trump Administration in the remaining weeks before the election.
"Joe Biden says democracy's on the ballot but I think law and order's on the ballot as well," Pence said.
The vice president made passing reference to the coronavirus, referring to the "heartbreaking milestone" recently reached, presumably the 200,000 American deaths that were reached over the weekend.
About least 200 people gathered for the rally, but most in the crowd were wearing masks ahead of Pence's start, unlike a recent Trump rally in New Hampshire.
Traveling on Air Force Two, Pence arrived in Manchester, New Hampshire, because Laconia's airport, where the rally was hosted, didn't have enough runway for his plane, the vice president said. He was given a coronavirus briefing on the jet before heading to the event.
Pence was set to return to Washington, D.C., Tuesday evening but his airplane struck a bird upon takeoff, causing the pilot to return to the airport out of caution, the White House said.
When Air Force Two took off from Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, it struck a bird. A senior administration official, who wasn't authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the vice president and his entourage were in no danger.
Pence ended up flying home on a cargo aircraft that the Secret Service uses to transport his vehicles during his travel.
Also Tuesday, a former Pence aide who's announced her plan to vote for Biden is speaking to NBC News, saying Trump, in his handling of the pandemic, is "not actually looking out for" Americans.
Meanwhile, the New Hampshire Democratic Party held a press call on the administration's "failure" to contain the coronavirus crisis ahead of the rally as the nationwide death toll passes 200,000.
Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas and NHDP Chair Ray Buckley were set to speak, along with Granite State doctors, patients and business owners on the impact COVID-19.
The latest "Make America Great Again" event comes several weeks after Trump held the rally in the battleground state where he lost to Hillary Clinton by less than 3,000 votes in 2016. The late August event drew criticism over the tightly packed, largely mask-less crowd despite Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s mask mandate for gatherings of more than 100 people in the state.
Buckley characterized Pence's visit as an attempt to "barrage voters with more lies," in a statement last week.
"That doesn’t change the fact that he and President Trump have failed to protect American lives and livelihoods here and around the country," Buckley said. "Granite Staters know the reality: six months into a global pandemic, thousands of us have lost jobs in the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression, and we are nowhere close to the end of this crisis."
