Mike Pence: Trump and I ‘Were Different Men with Different Styles’

Mike Pence discussed Donald Trump, populism, ending holds on military promotions, and more during a wide-ranging interview on SiriusXM’s POTUS Politics channel today (September 6). The former Vice President sat down with hosts Steve Scully and Julie Mason for an exclusive interview at New England College in New Hampshire. Check out highlights from the interview below and listen to it in full on the SiriusXM App.

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Hear Mike Pence’s entire interview on the SiriusXM App

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STEVE SCULLY: Just a very quick follow up. It seems like you are aligning yourself with the policies of Donald Trump, but breaking away from the personality of Donald Trump.

MIKE PENCE: <Laugh> Well, some people think we’re a little bit different. But look, I want to tell you, and in that book, at least one person brought my book today. I’m going to sign it afterwards. You know, the book that I wrote, has been called the Most Fulsome Defense of the Trump-Pence record that’s been in print. We had a very good, successful working relationship. I’m incredibly proud of the record of the administration. While we were different men with different styles, I’m someone that believes that democracy depends on heavy doses of civility. The president had his own style and he’d won the White House. He had every right to conduct his presidency the way that he saw fit. And it was my privilege to be able to support that agenda and move that agenda forward.

And I truly do believe that when you see what’s happened in our economy since the advent of the Biden administration, when you look what’s happened on the world stage the American people know we’ve got to get back. We’ve got to get back to the strong military, to a commitment, to pro-growth policies, to a commitment to respecting liberties and values that defined our administration. And if I’m President of the United States, we will, but I also want people here at New England College and the students here to know, I think the American people long for us to restore a threshold of civility in public life. You know, I’ve long believed that as my faith instructs me, that we ought to do unto others as we’d have them do unto us, right? Politics too often is do unto others before they do unto you, right? <Laugh>. But I believe that by restoring civility, we can create the conditions where we can begin to tackle some of these intractable problems that frankly, we’ve been jawboning for decades. You’ve been around it a long time, Julie. You the same. We’ve got some real challenges facing this country, whether it’s a crisis at our southern border, whether it’s a national debt crisis, whether it’s widening dangers in the world. And I think having the kind of leadership that at least creates the possibility of Americans hearing one another and finding what would be genuinely common ground would be what I would aspire to if I’m President of the United States. I promise you.

PENCE: Here within the Republican party, I think we have a choice to make, and that is whether or not we’re going to offer the American people a candidate and a standard bearer that will carry forward the common sense conservative agenda of a strong national defense, American leadership in the world, fiscal responsibility and pro-growth policies, a commitment to traditional values and liberties in life, or whether or not we’ll follow the siren song of populism, unmoored to conservative principle. I mean, frankly, my former running mate and other candidates for the Republican nomination are beginning to move away from that conservative agenda.

SCULLY: A quick follow up because as you know, Senator Tommy Tuberville has put a hold on more than 300 nominations. You have military members in your own family, so thank you for their service.

PENCE: So do you.

SCULLY: But what about that, what about –

PENCE: His daughter’s a fighter pilot. You could give her a round of applause if you want.

SCULLY: Thank you. Serving with his son-in-law. But what would you say to the military that says, look, this is dangerous to national security?

PENCE: Yeah. Well, what I would say if I was working in Washington, DC is I’d look across the Potomac at the Pentagon. I would say this can all be over tomorrow if you just stop undermining state pro-life laws. And look, we don’t need the Pentagon under the Biden administration working to end run, provide support for people to essentially travel across state lines for abortions. It’s a free country. People can go where they want to go. They can take leave in the military and go where they want. But look, I don’t support taxpayer funding of abortion and I don’t support the pentagon’s efforts to subsidize and provide and facilitate abortions in a way that undermines the laws, the jurisdictions in which our bases are established and operate. So all that can be over tomorrow if the Pentagon would just stand down on attempting to push a liberal social agenda through the defense department.