The Mike Pence Town Hall
By Mike Moffatt (@MikeJMoffatt on Twitter)
Last night, former Vice President Mike Pence traveled to New York to do a live town hall on the set of CNN. Hosted by Jake Tapper, the Town Hall lasted just over 75 minutes. Questions from both the audience and Tapper ranged from the January 6th insurrection to abortion rights across America. The audience, full of Republicans and Democrats both from the Hoosier state and New York, was well prepared to ask the former VP their pressing questions in hopes to get clarity for the future of the political climate.
Just one day after former President Trump, and his former partner, announced a third bid for the US Presidency, Pence wasted no time in saying he believes “there will be better options come 2024.” Without saying specifically whether or not he’s decided to run, the sense in the room was that Pence’s name will be on the ticket for the Republican nomination. On the same day that Trump held his press conference, Pence’s tell-all book, So Help Me God, was released
Jake Tapper wasted no time in asking the former VP if he will support Trump in his third Presidential bid. Pence responds with “I think we’ll have better choices. It’s time for new leadership.”
“I’ll keep you posted,” Pence told CNN’s Jake Tapper, who pressed to get an answer about 2024. He continued, “I think it’s time for new leadership in this country that will bring us together around our highest ideals.”
Often times throughout the Town Hall, Pence referred to his former boss in the past tense. When asked about the current state of their friendship, Pence said “he was my friend.” Which pushed Tapper to question if Pence is still angry with Trump. Pence responded by quoting his Christian faith and how forgiveness is an important aspect of Christianity. Tapper pushed back, stating how Trump placed Pence’s wife and daughter in direct harm. While stumping Pence for a couple of silent seconds, starring right back at Tapper, he said he’s forgiven the President.
While Pence made it clear, however, that after the President continued to use the same rhetoric he used leading up to the insurrection, “I thought it was best to part ways.”
Pence said that January 6 was the “most difficult day of my public life.”
“I thought it was important, as vice president, that I offer my advice and my counsel to the president confidentially. And we did,” Pence said of his role that day. While the President and his advisors alike wanted Pence to perform an unconstitutional act in denying the election.
“I had one higher loyalty, and that was to God and the Constitution. And that’s what set in motion the confrontation that would come to pass on January 6 because I had taken an oath to the Constitution of the United States,” Pence said.
“But I’ll always believe,” he added, “that we did our duty that day upholding the Constitution of the United States and the laws of this country and the peaceful transfer of power.”
Pence reiterated what he had said earlier in the day that he will not testify before the House select committee. Saying that “Congress has no right to my testimony.” He went on to say how it wasn’t right that a partisan committee was in charge which Tapper interjected saying how McCarthy, the House minority leader, pulled his House members off the committee. Even adding that in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, the House convened an all-Republican committee. Directly rebutting the idea that this was unprecedented.
Although Pence was questioned about topics ranging from abortion — which he stated, “thanks to our three conservative SCOTUS justices we placed, Roe v Wade was overturned.” — the tone of the Town Hall surrounded the relationship with POTUS 45 and his plans for the future. At one point near the end, Tapper even asked Pence’s wife Karen if she would allow him to run, to which she responded, “no comment”.
Pence was poised and prepared for the questions that both Tapper and the audience brought. Much to his tone of So Help Us God and his most recent news interviews, he danced and avoided a minefield of questions laced with the idea of growing the gap between him and MAGA Republicans. Pence was slow in response but measured as he delivered his answers. An approach that he’s kept for his 12-year political career.
