- A video of Vice President Mike Pence traveling by motorcade on the historically car-free Mackinac Island in Michigan has been causing outrage on social media.
- Mackinac has been car-free since 1901, and Pence is reportedly the first government official to have traveled by car on the island.
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A video of Vice President Mike Pence traveling by an eight-car motorcade on the historically car-free Mackinac Island in Michigan has been causing outrage on social media.
The motorcade was delivered to the island via ferry ahead of the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference event, which took place on the island that has largely been preserved as a state park.
"It was our honor to transport (Vice President Mike Pence's) emergency vehicles to Mackinac Island this weekend," Shepler's Ferry, the ferry provider that transported the motorcade, tweeted.
"Regardless of your political views, we hope you'll understand the logistical intricacies involved in securing our leaders while visiting," the tweet continued. "We were happy to assist."
The island enacted vehicle bans in 1901 that is still in effect today because the presence of cars on the island were "noisy and belched stinky fumes" and scared the horses, according to the Star Tribune. Exceptions of the ban include construction, police, and emergency vehicles.
Pence is the first government official to disrupt Mackinac Island's carless tradition, according to The New York Times. Former President Gerald R. Ford visited the island in 1975, but rode a horse-drawn carriage around the island instead.
Take a look at the island and the motorcade that has "fouled (the) paradise":