Former Vice President Mike Pence wants to be a “constructive force for the conservative agenda” during President Trump’s second term because he is one of the few Republicans who is ready to formally challenge Trump.
Even though Pence and Trump had a public fight after the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he said he would support the new Trump administration on issues he agreed with and disagreed with on others.
“Well, for me, it’s always principles first. It’s not personal,” Pence said in a recent interview.
Advancing American Freedom, Pence’s political action committee, spent almost $1 million on ads against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s new Health and Human Services Secretary.
The former vice president said that people who work for him and him got “a lot of quiet encouragement” to stand up against Kennedy. As Pence put it, the “nomination of an abortion rights supporter to be secretary of HHS is a dramatic departure from 50 years of strong pro-life leadership at HHS under Republican administrations.” He felt he had to speak out against this.
Asked why Republicans might be reluctant to oppose Trump publicly, Pence said, “I never speculate on motives. You know, I’m not new to town. I’ve waged lonely battles before.”
“But you know, you have to be willing to step out and lead,” the former vice president said. “My hope is that when the next issue of life comes up, that people will have been encouraged, emboldened to know that they’re not alone.”
Pence has been lobbying Congress members and giving speeches in which he urges Trump to stand with long-time allies. At the same time, his staff has been writing letters and opinion columns.
Advancing American Freedom aims to commend the administration when they align with it, while voicing their concerns when they don’t, championing traditional conservative values they feel have been overshadowed by Trump’s “Make America Great Again” populism.
“We’re calling balls and strikes here,” Pence told the AP. “I think that the way we want to approach this is with integrity to principle. And I’m very encouraged. I think the Trump administration is off to a great start… I’m very pleased about the president undoing Biden’s border policies and putting back into place the policies that we had negotiated and established that secured the border.”
Pence also told a bizarre story of how he met a man in Iowa who told him that he should run for president in 2028.
“And he goes, ‘But I’ll see you in four years. You’re going to be a great president someday,’” Pence claimed the man said.
“I said, ‘Would you mind telling me, you know, why?’ And he said words I never forgot, which was in effect: He lamented Biden’s failed record. And I saw that he was drawn to the need for a rematch. And then he said, ‘Plus, if they can do that to a former president, they can do that to me.’ And the ‘lawfare’ stuff went into higher relief,” Pence added.
“So I didn’t see in this last election a Republican Party that was embracing big government or a vision to pull back from America’s commitments on the world stage or marginalizing the right to life. I didn’t see that traveling all over the country and I still don’t see it. I think there were other factors that gave the former president a decided advantage in the election. He’d earned it. He’d won it. And then he won it in the fall. But I don’t think the party’s changed,” Pence told the AP.
Pence told the AP that he went to Trump’s Inauguration last month and “was very moved in the outpouring of kind words and expressions of appreciation from former colleagues, including many members of the new administration who I encountered in hallways.”
When he saw Trump’s new secretary of state, Marco Rubio, Pence said he hugged him and “told him how proud I was of him.”
“We had praised him from here when he was selected,” Pence told the AP. “I must have seen or interacted with about half the incoming Cabinet.”
At the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, Pence said he had a “very cordial exchange” with Trump. When Trump was coming down the front row of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Pence recalled him saying, “Hi, Mike.”
Pence said he extended his hand to Trump and said, “Congratulations, Mr. President,” and “I could see his countenance softened. And he said, ‘Thanks.’” Pence said he also congratulated First Lady Melania Trump.
“You know, the people that know me know it’s not personal,” Pence told the AP. “I’ve long since forgiven the president for any differences that we had at the end of our administration. We still have those differences as the president still holds the view that, to my knowledge, that I had some authority that I did not have under the Constitution or laws of the country. But from my heart, I’ve prayed often for the president.”