Former Vice President Mike Pence is still trying to remain relevant within the GOP by criticizing his former boss, but this approach does not seem likely to endear him to the MAGA world.
During an interview on CNN, anchor Kate Bolduan asked Pence about President Donald Trump’s recent moves with Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Pence said he supported Trump’s tougher approach toward Putin, which he ascribed to the GOP’s “isolationists” losing momentum with the president after criticizing Trump’s assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Bolduan finally switched the topic to recent CNN reporting that Pete Hegseth had unilaterally halted arms supplies to Ukraine in response to escalating Russian attacks. In recent days, Trump has been questioned about who blocked the weapons shipments, telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday, “I don’t know.”
Below is a transcript of the exchange:
BOLDUAN: “I saw you almost shake your head in disbelief at what the reporting has been, which is, today we learned that U.S. weapons shipments are starting back up to Ukraine.”
Pence: “Right.”
BOLDUAN: “But this comes after the reporting is that the Pentagon paused shipments on some weapons, signed off on by the Secretary of Defense, without the knowledge, without informing the president of the United States. The idea that a decision that big was made without getting the approval of, or even informing the president of the United States, does that make any sense to you?”
Pence: “Well, look, when — when you’ve served at the level I’ve served at, it’s a big government. And a lot of people in your agencies and in departments are making decisions all the time. But that one was troubling to me. And my bet is it’s very troubling to the president. I — my expectation is that he’ll get to the bottom of it. He will — he will find out who initiated that decision. But the most important thing is that he reversed it. And — and — and made it clear in a phone call with President Zelenskyy last Friday that the — the support is going to continue to come. Now, I — I will say, and I say respectfully to the president, if he’s looking on, this isn’t just about defensive weapons.”
BOLDUAN: “Right.”
Pence: “We’ve got to continue to provide President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian military with the offensive capability, as well as, you know, the kind of support against aerial assaults. That will allow them to achieve a real peace.”
WATCH:
Pence attacked Trump back in May for remarks the president made during a speech in Saudi Arabia, calling them a “disservice” to U.S. veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Pence responded to Trump’s comments in Riyadh, where the president denounced previous U.S. interventions in the Middle East. Trump asserted that the development of modern cities like Riyadh and Abu Dhabi was not the result of Western “nation-builders,” but rather the achievement of local populations.
“In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built,” Trump said. “The interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.”
“But, Kristen, I’ve never been a fan of American presidents criticizing America on foreign soil,” he said. “And to have the president in Saudi Arabia questioning America’s global war on terror, and describing it as nation-building and interventionist, I thought was a disservice to generations of Americans who wore the uniform and who took the fight to our enemy, you know, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. And particularly giving that speech in Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers hailed from, not including Osama bin Laden, I thought was unfortunate.”
Pence said in February he wants to be a “constructive force for the conservative agenda” during Trump’s second term because he is one of the few Republicans who is ready to formally challenge the president.