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Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 28, 2023. (KUTV)

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks in downtown Salt Lake today, a day after testifying for hours before a grand jury in Washington investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Pences speech to an invitation-only lunch crowd is happening at Zions Bank headquarters, and almost certainly was scheduled before his grand jury appearance.

I will always believe by Gods grace, with my wife by my side all day and nightthat we did our duty under the Constitution of the United States of America, Pence said to a standing ovation.

The Gary R Herbert Institute for Public Policy at UVU said it invited Pence to speak on local and national public policy issues, and said he will share his insights from his time serving as vice president, congressman and governor.

Pence had the latter two roles in Indiana, but the news getting the most attention now surrounds defying former President Trumps call for him to block certification of the 2020 election resultsand Pences own likely run for the White House.

The former vice president reportedly resisted the grand jury testimony, but a federal judge ruled he had to comply with a subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith, who is focused on Trumps actions related to the 2020 election.

Politico earlier reported Pence is building out his political team to get ready for a presidential run, and that his nonprofit called Advancing American Freedom has already held a retreat in Utah attended by major donors.

Polls published by realclearpolitics.com show Pence in third place for the Republican nomination, well behind Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

On a visit to Utah while vice president, Pence promoted the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, which was stalled in Congress at the time, but eventually became law.

After his speech at a medical equipment manufacturer, he took questions from local reporters, and he may do the same today.

Pence presided as Congress certified the election results against the wishes of Trump, and after demonstrators breached the Capitol.

The former vice president spoke of his Christian faith, immigration, national debt, and a rising threat from Chinaand it was not lost on anyone in the room that hes eyeing his own run for the White House.

I think the American people want to see us restore a threshold of civility and respect in public life once again, said Pence to applause. I believe it with all my heart.

People who watched and listened Friday described Pence as a person of strong conviction with power and experience and kindness.

RELATED: Former Vice President Mike Pence hosting roundtable discussion in Utah

But Kevin Johnson added another impression.

Hes not overly exciting, Johnson said. Hes not going to bring down the house.

Pence is running third in polls for the GOP presidential nomination, in single digits, and well behind Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Asked if he would vote for Pence for president, Curtis Blair said with a smile, You know, thats a really good question. I dont know.

Carson Jorgensen, former Utah Republican Party chair, cast Pence as a long shot.

I think its an uphill battle for him, said Jorgensen, and everybody knows it.

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Mike Pence speaking in Utah day after grand jury testimony - KUTV 2News

(NewsNation) Affirming what he called a consistent position on abortion, former Vice President Mike Pence hailed the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, saying the legal decision was sent to the ash heap of history where it belongs.

Pence made the comment Monday on The Hill on NewsNation, where he discussed a range of topics including abortion, a potential presidential 2024 run and the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

He praised the work of the Trump administration appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who had all voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that granted women the right to an abortion nationwide.

I couldnt be more proud to have been part of the administration that appointed three of the justices that sent Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs, Pence said.

Pences stance is in contrast to the majority of Americans, who disapprove of the high courts decision, according to Pew Research Center. In a July 2022 poll 62% of respondents said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Abortion became a central focus of the 2022 midterm elections, particularly for Democrats who say the courts decision galvanized their voters. In the leadup to the election, 56% of Americans in another Pew poll said abortion was was very important to them. That number dropped to 41% among Republican voters.

You can watch a portion of Pences interview above.

You can watch the full interview with Pence here.

See the rest here:
Pence: Roe v. Wade belongs in ash heap of history - NewsNation Now

Washington Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is expected to seek the GOP presidential nomination, said he would like to see a widely used abortion pill taken off shelves to "protect the unborn" and said he has "deep concerns" about the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the drug mifepristone more than 20 years ago.

In an interview that aired Sunday on "Face the Nation," Pence addressed the Supreme Court's order on Friday that preserved access to mifepristone as litigation over the FDA's 23-year-old approval of the medication continues.

"I'd like to see this medication off the market to protect the unborn," Pence told CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa. "But I have deep concerns about the way the FDA went about approving mifepristone 20 years ago. I'm grateful that action is being taken in the courts to hold the FDA accountable to what the law requires in reviewing any medication that's made on the marketplace."

The Supreme Court's intervention in the dispute over mifepristone came after a federal judge in Texas blocked the FDA's 2000 approval of mifepristone on April 7. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit narrowed the district court's decision, but rolled back a series of actions taken by the FDA since 2016 that relaxed the rules surrounding the drug and made it easier to access.

click to expand

The Justice Department and pharmaceutical company Danco Laboratories, which makes mifepristone, asked the Supreme Court to pause the lower court orders, and the justices agreed to do so Friday, maintaining the abortion drug's availability for now.

Pence said that the FDA should be held accountable under the law for how it approved mifepristone, and he criticized the Biden administration for lifting a policy in 2021 that required the abortion pill to be dispensed in-person, which allowed it to be sent by mail.

"For the sake of protecting the unborn, but also for the health and safety of women, I'm looking forward to this litigation continuing and holding the manufacturers of mifepristone accountable," Pence said.

Medication abortions have become increasingly common and accounted for more than half of all abortions in the U.S. in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Mifepristone is taken in combination with a second medicine, misoprostol, to terminate a pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation.

The FDA has argued in court papers that the risk of serious adverse events from mifepristone is extremely low when it is taken as directed, and serious complications associated with mifepristone are rare, involving just a fraction of a percent of cases. More than 5 million women have ended their pregnancies using mifepristone, according to court filings.

The dispute over the abortion pill's availability is the most significant to land before the Supreme Court since it overruled Roe v. Wade last June. Since then, more than a dozen states have imposed near-total bans or more stringent limits on abortions. In 15 states, restrictions are in place that make it harder for patients to obtain medication abortions, including by requiring the drugs to be provided by a physician, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research organization.

The Supreme Court's decision to unwind the constitutional right to abortion was a significant victory for conservatives, who for decades have been pushing for Roe's reversal. But the issue of abortion is expected to be a major one in the 2024 election.

Last week, the head of the anti-abortion rights group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America criticized former President Donald Trump for saying that abortion policies should be decided by the states, calling the position "morally indefensible for a self-proclaimed pro-life" presidential candidate.

Pence said he disagrees with Trump's assertion and abortion "isn't a states-only decision." Instead, the former vice president called for a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

"The cause of restoring the sanctity of life to the center of American law is the calling of our time," he said. "The Supreme Court in the Dobbs decision last June gave the American people a new beginning for life. It returned the question of abortion to the states and to the American people. But it didn't just return it exclusively to the states."

Pence said he is proud that the three justices appointed to the Supreme Court during the Trump presidency all voted to overturn Roe. But he said that he believes now, Americans who oppose abortion rights want their elected officials to "seize every opportunity to put the interests of the unborn first and also, in equal measure, to demonstrate the generosity and compassion of the American people, toward women who've been caught up in abortion in the last 50 years, and women who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy today,"

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Mike Pence says he wants abortion pill mifepristone "off the market" - CBS News

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Former US vice president Mike Pence has declined to condemn a spate of recent gun attacks on innocent bystanders, suggesting they were a consequence of rising crime rates.

In an interview with CBS's Face the Nation programme on Sunday, Mr Pence said the shooting of unarmed civilians by legal firearm owners should not require Americans to forfeit their gun rights.

The interviewer appeared to be referencing three recent incidents in which people who approached the wrong house or car were fired upon by the occupant, despite posing no threat.

Kaylin Gillis, 20, was shot dead in rural New York after pulling into the wrong driveway, while Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager in Missouri, survived being shot by a white homeowner because he rang the wrong doorbell. Two cheerleaders in Texas were also shot when one of them mistakenly tried to enter the wrong car in a parking lot.

Asked what could be done to stem the fear and violence, Mr Pence said: "Well, our- our hearts go out to the families of lost loved ones in the incidents in- in Kansas City, and in upstate New York. I just can't imagine the pain that they're enduring in that tragedy.

"But," he continued, "tragedy should not require us to forfeit our liberty. And the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution of the United States.

"I don't know the facts of those cases, I'm confident that local law enforcement will move forward and apply the law in a proper way. But I can't help but suspect that this recent spate of tragedies is evidence of the fear that so many Americans are feeling about the crime wave besetting this country."

When the interviewer suggested there was "no excuse" for shooting at somebody who comes to your door, Mr Pence declined to agree or disagree, saying only that he [couldn't imagine] the circumstances" that would lead someone to do that and was sure local law enforcers would "hold people to a proper accounting".

Republicans have made claims of a Democratic "crime wave" central to their campaigning since 2021, reportedly spending around $157m on crime-related adverts in advance of last year's midterm elections.

The average US murder rate rose significantly between 2019 an 2021 before apparently falling in 2022, according to the FBI, with some cities seeing sharp spikes in homicides.

The rate of violent crime seems to have dropped slightly, but the FBI's data for 2021 is patchy and does not include major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Democrats contend that loose Republican gun regulations are feeding the problem, pointing to broadly higher murder rates in red states such as Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri, and Arkansas.

Crystal Quade, leader of the Democratic minority in the Missouri House of Representatives, blamed the shooting of Ralph Yarl on extreme gun laws that have created a culture of fear... that turns neighbours against each other.

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Mike Pence makes excuses for shootings of Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis - The Independent

Mike Pence

Former vice-president, adrift of Trump and DeSantis in polls, makes less-than-bold presidential prediction to CBS

Mike Pence has not decided whether to enter the Republican presidential primary but if he does he will enter well before late June.

The former congressman, Indiana governor and vice-president to Donald Trump has been moving towards a run for months, releasing a memoir, visiting early voting states and establishing a political staff.

He made his less-than-bold prediction in an interview with CBS Face the Nation.

I think if we have an announcement to make, itll be well before late June, Pence said, adding: Anyone that would be serious about seeking the Republican nomination would need to be in this contest by June.

If we have an announcement to make it will be well before then.

Pence must perform a balancing act, distancing himself from Trump, the rival candidate whose supporters chanted for Pence to be hanged when they attacked the US Capitol, while trumpeting their achievements together in office.

It seems a doomed effort in a party and primary dominated by Trump, particularly as Pence recently dropped attempts to avoid testifying in the justice department investigation of the January 6 attack.

In March, in perhaps his boldest break from Trump, Pence told a Washington dinner: President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election, and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.

On CBS, asked if he was leaning in or leaning away, Pence said: Well, Im here in Iowa.

His interviewer, Robert Costa, said: Sounds like youre leaning in.

Pence said: I would tell you that Im very humbled by the encouragement that were receiving. And I promise when we have something to announce, youll be among the first to know.

Pence spoke on Saturday at an event in Clive, Iowa, staged by the Faith & Freedom Coalition, a rightwing nonprofit.

Trump also addressed the event. Responding to a recent rebuke from a leading anti-abortion group, which called his opposition to a federal abortion ban morally indefensible, the former president highlighted the decision by which a supreme court including three justices he named removed the right to abortion last year.

Those justices delivered a landmark victory for protecting innocent life, Trump said, in a speech delivered by video. Nobody thought it was going to happen. They thought it would be another 50 years. Because Republicans had been trying to do it for exactly that period of time, 50 years.

The Roe v Wade decision which protected the right to abortion came in 1973 49 years before it was overturned by Dobbs v Jackson.

The Iowa caucuses will kick off the Republican primary in February. Ten months out, Trump enjoys clear leads in polling.

The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has maintained a hold on second place without declaring a run.

But DeSantiss numbers are tanking. The governor faces his own difficulties at state level while Trump surfs a wave of support generated by his criminal indictment in New York, over a hush money payment to an adult film star, and other forms of legal jeopardy including a civil rape trial due to open next week.

Trump denies wrongdoing and claims to be the victim of Democratic witch-hunts: a potent combination for attracting donations and support. On Sunday, an NBC poll said 68% of Republican voters thought Trump was the victim of politically motivated attacks and it was important to support him.

Pence is contesting third place with Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who declared her run in February. Both are at around 4% support.

The other mainstream Republican to have declared, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, struggles to break 1%. The South Carolina senator Tim Scott has all but declared a run but remains all but invisible in polling.

Polls do not provide uniformly good news for Trump. A poll this week from the Associated Press and the University of Chicago said 44% of Republicans (and 70% of Americans) do not want him to be the nominee.

The Dispatch, a conservative anti-Trump site, said Pence was planning a launch in Indiana, followed by another trip to Iowa.

Pence, the site said, plans to campaign as the traditional conservative he is, eschewing momentary cultural flashpoints that inflame passions and attract eyeballs [to] instead focus on wonky topics fraught with political peril, like how to address the ballooning federal debt and reforming popular programs like Social Security and Medicare.

On abortion, Pence is eager to highlight his opposition and his commitment to signing federal legislation limiting the procedure.

Such positions have proved unpopular with general election voters. The Dispatch also said Pence planned to aim fire directly at Trump.

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Link:
Mike Pence will enter presidential race well before late June if he does at all - The Guardian US