Media Reports Conflict on Trump Visit to Chattanooga Before Midterms

There are conflicting reports on whether President Donald Trump plans to visit Chattanooga just before Election Day. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence is visiting North Georgia on Nov. 1.

News Channel 9 reported Thursday that the president would visit Chattanooga on Nov. 5, citing a statement by U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-03). Later in the evening, the TV station said Fleischmann backed off his statement.

In its update, News Channel 9 said, “A new statement from Congressman Fleischmann’s office is walking back his previous confirmation of Trump’s visit. In it, Communications Director Kasey Lovett says that they would welcome such a visit, ‘but I am not aware of any plans in the near future.’”

WRCB reported a possible visit but said details had not been confirmed. The Chattanoogan also reported the president’s visit.

It has also been announced Pence will visit Dalton, Georgia, just outside Chattanooga. He will visit the Dalton Convention Center at 11:30 a.m. Eastern on Nov. 1, the Times Free Press said.

Pence plans to rally support for  Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp. Polls shows Kemp in a close race with Democrat Stacey Abrams.

This will be Pence’s second trip to Dalton in three years. During the run up to the 2016 presidential election, Kemp spoke alongside U.S. Rep. Tom Graves at an event at the convention center.

President Trump last traveled to Tennessee Oct. 1 to stump for Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07), the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN).

The president spent much of the evening in Johnson City blasting Blackburn’s Democrat opponent, former Gov. Phil Bredesen, and tearing into obstructionist Democrats in the Senate.

“A vote for Bredesen is a vote for Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and the real leader of the Democrats, Maxine Waters,” the president boomed, to thunderous applause.

Trump also held a fundraiser and rally for Blackburn in Nashville in May.

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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.