Former Vice President Mike Pence is spending time in Western Iowa campaigning for the White House this week. While in Sioux Center Wednesday morning, he talked with Sioux County Radio’s Mark Buss about his time serving with President Donald Trump. Pence says they worked well together, debating with the president “well over a thousand times”, but never with the cameras on. Pence says he spent, on average, four hours a day in the Oval Office, when he and the President were both there, and he’s proud of the work they were able to do, and the record they created.
Campaigning for his own bid to lead the US, Pence says he’s concerned about the direction of the Republican Party. He says the GOP and many of the current presidential candidates seem to be walking away from important issues. He sees the former president and others “walking away from the right to life at precisely the time that we’ve been given a new era for life.” He’s also concerned the party is walking away from a commitment to fiscal responsibility when the nation’s debt is the same size as the nation’s economy. In addition, he cited his recent trip to Ukraine where he learned of the ongoing “extraordinary barbarism and war crimes the Russian military” is inflicting on the people in that country. He says many people, including former President Trump, are signaling a desire to walk away from American leadership in the world. Pence firmly believes America is the leader of the world and must retain that leadership.
Pence says he looks forward to debating these issues not only with his former boss, but with other candidates as well. It is still unclear whether Pence has met the fundraising threshold to qualify for the first televised debate, but he indicated in an earlier interview that he will be on the debate stage.
