Vice President Mike Pence: What Do We Know About Trump's Right-Hand Man?
In the 2016 election, Vice President Mike Pence served as an important bridge between then-candidate Donald Trump and white evangelical voters. As the Republican National Convention continues, we’ll look at Pence’s record as VP, and the role he plays now.
Guests
Michael D’Antonio, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. CNN Contributor. Co-author with Peter Eisner of “The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence.” Author of “The Hunting of Hillary: The Forty-Year Campaign to Destroy Hillary Clinton.” (@MBDAntonio)
Whit Ayres, Republican pollster. President of North Star Opinion Research. (@WhitAyres)
Michael Evans, One of 25 evangelical advisers to Donald Trump. Journalist, commentator and minister. (@DrMichaelDEvans)
Sarah Kliff, investigative reporter for The New York Times whose reporting focuses on the American health care system. (@sarahkliff)
From The Reading List
The New York Times: “From Trump’s Shadow, Mike Pence Can See 2024” — “Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the federal coronavirus task force, delivered a clear message to governors about reopening schools. Help us help you, Mr. Pence told the state executives during a virtual meeting in early July, stressing that the administration wanted to see children back in the classroom.”
The Washington Post: “Mike Pence hopes four years of subservience to Trump will lift his political future” — “Like many who served in Congress alongside the late John Lewis, then-Rep. Mike Pence made a pilgrimage to Selma, Ala., in 2010 to commemorate the 45th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday.’ He marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge just a few feet from Lewis as they retraced the historic route, and posed for a photo at the foot of the span — the Indiana Republican in crisp gray and the Georgia Democrat in somber black, their shoulders touching.”
The Atlantic: “Mike Pence’s Plan to Save Trump — And Himself” — “In private moments, Donald Trump has told aides that he rescued Mike Pence from a potentially embarrassing defeat by pulling him out of a tough reelection bid in the 2016 Indiana governor’s race and putting him on the ticket, a former White House official told me. Now it’s Vice President Pence’s turn to see what, if anything, he can do to rescue Trump from a more momentous loss — and keep alive a long-held ambition to win the presidency in his own right.”
The Guardian: “Mike Pence shows his worth by reaching the parts Trump cannot” — “Two green tractors were mounted on the podium. Beneath ‘Farmers & Ranchers for Trump’ signs, the seated audience wore ‘Trump 2020’ campaign regalia. They warmed up with The Best, YMCA and other songs familiar from Donald Trump’s campaign rallies. But when the headline speaker walked out at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, it was not the US president. Instead his deputy, Mike Pence, wearing an open-collar red checked shirt under his suit jacket, took centre stage and let rip against his new Democratic opposite number, Kamala Harris of California.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org. [Copyright 2020 NPR]
