This Just Isn't Mike Pence's Week... Or Month

It's been a hard couple of months for Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence. On Thursday, Pence's campaign plane slipped off the LaGuardia Airport runway. The vice presidential candidate wasn't injured, but he did cancel a fundraising event at Trump Tower in Manhattan following the mishap. Pence opted to head to his hotel instead, according to the BBC.

The alarming event happened while Pence was aboard a plane heading from Fort Dodge, Iowa, to New York City following a rally. The plane's takeoff was delayed, with Pence playing football on the tarmac during the ground hold, he tweeted. Pence had a lot to lose if something more serious had gone awry during the landing; Pence's wife, daughter, and campaign advisers were aboard the plane as well, NBC News reported. LaGuardia airport initially halted all planes from landing or taking off, but it has reopened for limited takeoffs and landings, according to WPIX. Thankfully no one on Pence's plane was injured during the slide, which most likely occurred due to the rainy weather, CNN reported.

Anyone would be shaken following such an event, but that isn't even the worst of it; Pence's dog died earlier this week. The VP candidate took to Twitter to announce the passing of Maverick, a beagle who had been with Pence's family for 13 years. At least Maverick's death wasn't too painful; the beagle passed away "quietly" on Tuesday night, according to Pence's tweet. Still, it's enough to break any dog-lover's heart.

This comes on the heels of the vice presidential debate, which took place on Oct. 4. Several media outlets, including The Daily Beast, criticized Pence for refusing to defend things that his running-mate Donald Trump was clearly documented saying in the past. The two have disagreed on topics in the past, though Pence continues to maintain the idea that their positions are actually the same. This manifested itself the second presidential debate on Oct. 9; Trump said he did not agree with Pence’s position on the Syrian civil war. “He and I haven’t spoken, and I disagree,” Trump told debate moderator Martha Raddatz of CNN. The next morning, Pence said Raddatz had misrepresented his position, which was originally about humanitarian aid, CBS reported.

But this wasn't the only Trump-related issue Pence was dealing with at the time; who can forget Trump's 2005 hot mic tape, which caught him making inappropriate comments about women and consent? While Pence dismissed the sexual assault claims surrounding the tape as "locker room talk" on CNN, Washington Post correspondent Philip Rucker tweeted that "A source close to Trump camp told me Pence and his team are 'absolutely apoplectic,' 'melting down' and 'inconsolable.'” To be fair, Pence said on multiple news shows that it was "absolutely false" that he and his team were ever considering dropping off the ticket. Trump has firmly denied the allegations that have come against him.

Pence's troubles don't seem to be ending, with more Republicans expecting Hillary Clinton to win, according to a Reuters poll released Wednesday. We'll see how Pence fares in the days leading up to the election.