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Conservative Christians jeer traitor Pence for refusing …

Mike Pence, the former US vice-president, has been heckled as a traitor for his refusal to overturn last years election result during a speech to a gathering of religious conservatives.

Pence, who is widely seen as laying the groundwork for a White House run in 2024, had entered an auditorium in Orlando, Florida to a standing ovation on Friday. But a small group began shouted abuse including traitor! as he began a 28-minute speech. The dissenters were quickly escorted out by police.

Earlier, in a corridor outside the ballroom, an attendee named Rick Hurley, wearing a red Make America great again cap, also vented his frustration over Pences role in certifying Donald Trumps defeat on 6 January amid false claims of voter fraud.

We need to start fighting! Hurley shouted at anyone who would listen. We need to stop being so damned nice. What the hells going on? Why is Pence coming today? Donald Trump has his pen in his back still.

Before being taken aside by police, he also remarked: Im ready to fight. Im going to boo him off stage. Ill take the bullet. Ill walk to the front of the stage and look him in the eye and and say, What are you doing here?

In an interview, Hurley said he had been at the US Capitol on 6 January. I want to know why Pence is here today. he said. He stabbed Donald Trump in the back and took the coins like Judas.

But Ralph Reed, organiser of the Faith & Freedom Coalitions annual Road to Majority conference, was at pains to give Pence a warm welcome and honor him as stalwart of the Christian conservative movement.

And the ex-vice president, who earlier this month admitted that he and his former boss may never see eye to eye on the events of 6 January, when some Trump supporters called for him to be hanged, did not dwell on that disagreement during his remarks.

He instead told the gathering: Thank you for the privilege of serving as your vice-president with Donald Trump. It was the greatest honor of my life.

Pence made only a passing reference to the deadly insurrection that implied an equivalence with racial justice protests and Joe Bidens policies: Weve all been through a lot over the past year: a global pandemic, civil unrest, a divisive election, a tragic day in our nations Capitol, and a new administration intent on transforming our country.

Since leaving office, Pence has bought a house in Indiana, announced plans for a podcast and signed a two-book deal for his memoir. Despite the anger of some Trump supporters, he is seen as a potential candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

His conference speech on Friday duly listed the Trump administrations achievements from supreme court appointments to coronavirus vaccines and took aim at Biden for rapidly unravelling its legacy with a tidal wave of leftwing policies.

Pence quipped: Democrats have been so busy advancing their liberal agenda, sometimes I feel like the left hand doesnt know what the far left hand is doing.

He went on to rail against an explosion of runaway spending, proposed tax increases, plans to cut military funding and the cancellation of construction on Trumps signature border wall.

Literally in five months, they turned the most secure border in the world into the worst border crisis in American history, Pence said to applause. You know, when I was vice-president, I visited our southern border. And yes, its past time for our current vice-president to go to the border, put our policies back into effect and end the Biden border crisis today.

He also threw out false assertions to go after culture war targets currently in vogue in conservative media including cancel culture and defund the police.

Among them was critical race theory which, developed by academics starting in the 1970s, examines how racism embedded in law and institutions creates an uneven playing field for people of color in America. Numerous Republican controlled states have moved to ban it from being taught in schools.

Pence crudely misrepresented the intellectual tool by stating: Instead of teaching all of our children to be proud of their country, critical race theory teaches children as young as kindergarten to be ashamed of their skin color. Critical race theory is racism, pure and simple and it should be rejected by every American of every race.

The truth is its past time for America to discard the left wing reflex to see systemic racism across our nation. As my friend Senator Tim Scott says so well, America is not a racist country America is the most just, noble and inclusive nation ever to exist on the face of the earth.

In another wildly contentious claim, Pence said: The United States military is the greatest force for good the world has ever known.

Pence closed a morning session that included Republican senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, all potential rivals for the 2024 nomination. Trump himself has not yet declared whether he will run or whether Pence would again be his running mate.

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Pence heckled at conservative conference in Florida – CBS News

Former Vice President Mike Pence was met with scattered heckling on Friday, at a speech he was delivering in the home state of the president he served. As he addressed a general session at the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Orlando, there were some jeers, with some yelling "traitor" at him.

Undeterred, Pence declared himself "a Christian, a conservative and a Republican in that order" and went on to say, as he often does, that serving as vice president alongside President Trump "was the greatest honor of my life."

He laid out what he called a "winning agenda" to take back Republican majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives in the midterm elections next year, framing opponents of the GOP as anti-Christian and anti-military.

"Our movement will reject every effort to marginalize Christians and conservatives wherever it arises. We will expose religious persecution masquerading as a quest for equal rights, and we will demand that government agencies, our military, and our public schools reject critical race theory in all its forms," Pence said.

The former vice president tried to make the case that President Biden's administration is in thrall to the those who are furthest left in the Democratic Party, telling conference attendees that "one of the most troubling developments" during the first few months of the Biden administration has been its "wholehearted embrace of the radical left's all-encompassing assault on American culture and values."

Pence claimed "patriotic education" has been replaced by "political indoctrination" and said critical race theory, which posits that racism is a social construct embedded in the country's legal, economic and political systems, teaches kids to be ashamed of their skin color.

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"Critical race theory is racism, pure and simple," Pence said. "And it should be rejected by every American of every race," Pence said.

He added that it's time for America to "discard left-wing reflex to see systematic racism across the nation," and invoked Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican senator, who says "America is not a racist country."

Pence also attacked the Biden administration's handling of the U.S.-Mexico border and claimed President Biden has turned the "most secure" border in the world into the worst border crisis in American history. He also called on Vice President Kamala Harris to visit the southern border.

"It is long past time for our current vice president to go to the border, put our policies back into effect and end the Biden border crisis today," Pence said.

The former vice president also offered a critique of President Biden's handling of last week's G-7 summit and accused Mr. Biden of showing weak leadership abroad. "President Biden has been so busy accommodating the sensibilities of European leaders that this week at the G-7, President Macron said how great it was to have a U.S. president back as part of the club. Well, the only club I want a U.S. president part of is labeled 'USA,'" Pence said, putting his own spin on Mr. Trump's "America first" credo.

He claimed Mr. Biden has abandoned Israel "and set off the worst outbreak of violence in the Middle East in seven years." Pence also attacked the current administration for rejoining the Paris Climate accord and announcing plans to reopen negotiations with Iran: "President Biden replaced strength with weakness, moral clarity with confusion, and loyalty with betrayal."

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Pence heckled at conservative conference in Florida - CBS News

Donald Trump Blames Election Loss on Pence Certifying Biden’s Win: ‘Disappointed’ – Newsweek

Former President Donald Trump on Monday said that he could still be in office if Mike Pence had refused to certify President Joe Biden's election win.

On January 6, Pence declined Trump's demand that he block the certification by Congress of Biden's election as the 46th U.S. president. In a three-page letter to congressional members, the then-vice president said that he didn't share Trump's belief that he possessed the power to reject Electoral College votes.

Trump criticized Pence's decision in a new interview on Real America's Voice, arguing that there would be a "different president right now" if he had refused to certify Biden.

"I've always liked Mike and I'm very disappointed that he didn't send it back to the legislature. When you have more votes than you have voters in some cases, and when you have the kind of things that were known then," Trump said. "I was disappointed that he didn't send it back. I felt that he had the right to send it back and he should have sent it back. That's my opinion."

"I think you would have found that you might very well have a different president right now if he sent it back," he added.

Newsweek reached out to Pence representatives for comment. This story will be updated with any response.

After losing the election, Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that widespread voter fraud caused his defeat. His campaign filed a series of lawsuits in swing states, including Nevada, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia, in an effort to flip the election. Trump alleged that the fraud was widespread, but the contents and claims of the suits were much narrower, and unsuccessful in court.

Pence's break from Trump came just before he presided over a joint session of Congress to declare Biden the winner. "It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not," he said on the morning of January 6.

Trump condemned Pence an hour later by tweeting, "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify."

Later that day, pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building to disrupt the certification process in an effort to overturn the election results. Five people were killed in the insurrection, including one Capitol police officer.

In recent months, the voter fraud conspiracy theory has sparked a rift in the GOP between the Trump wing and the establishment wing impatient to end his grip on the party.

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Donald Trump Blames Election Loss on Pence Certifying Biden's Win: 'Disappointed' - Newsweek

Conservative activists heckle Pence at conference in Florida – Beaumont Enterprise

Associated Press

June 19, 2021Updated: June 19, 2021 8a.m.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) Some attendees at a conference in Florida for conservative activists heckled former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday during a speech.

A few attendees shouted, Traitor!" as Pence spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalitions Road to Majority Policy Conference at a resort in Orlando. Pence ignored the shouts and plowed through his address.

It's great to be back with so many patriots, dedicated to faith and freedom and the road to the majority!" Pence said.

At least one of the hecklers was removed by security, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Many supporters of former President Donald Trump have been angry with Pence after the former vice president said he did not have the power to overturn Democrat Joe Bidens election victory. During the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, angry protesters chanted, Hang Mike Pence!"

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Kevin McCarthy: Trump wants to be speaker – Denver Gazette

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says former President Donald Trump may consider taking on a different governmental role if Republicans reclaim the House in 2022.

McCarthy, who is often considered as a front-runner for the speakership if the GOP wins back the lower chamber in next year's midterm elections, says the former president has said that he wants to succeed Speaker Nancy Pelosi, although the California Republican is pushing him to run for his old job.

"You know, I've talked to President Trump many times. He tells me he wants to be speaker, and I think he should be president," McCarthy told Fox News's Brian Kilmeade on Friday.

TRUMP SAYS CONGRESSIONAL RUN TO BECOME SPEAKER AND IMPEACH BIDEN IS 'VERY INTERESTING' IDEA

Though Trump has frequently teased a 2024 presidential bid, some recent reports have suggested that he may instead vie to become speaker of the House, a position that need not be held by a member of Congress, according to the Constitution. The former president has called the suggestion "very interesting."

"You know, it's very interesting," Trump said when conservative commentator Wayne Allyn Root pitched the idea.

McCarthy also defended another potential 2024 contender, former Vice President Mike Pence, from charges from the Right that he betrayed Trump by certifying President Joe Biden's victory on Jan. 6.

"Mike Pence is not a traitor," he said. "I just saw Mike Pence last week. Mike Pence served as, not only as a member of Congress which I served with him, one of the most conservative members. He was the governor of Indiana, and he was the vice president who stood right by President Trump, [who] helped him get through the tax reform [and] get those judges in presiding over the Senate as well. Mike Pence deserves a lot of credit."

On Friday, Pence was taunted as a "traitor" when he took the stage at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Orlando, Florida.

"It is great to be back with so many patriots dedicated to faith and freedom and the road to the majority," Pence said as he took the stage.

Moments later, a woman could be heard shouting "traitor," while others yelled "boo" as the crowd erupted during his remarks.

Though Trump and Pence enjoyed a close relationship during their term in office, with Pence shepherding through much of Trump's preferred policies in his role as president of the Senate, the latter acknowledged that the pair might never "see eye to eye on" the events of Jan. 6. While Trump said Pence lacked the "courage" to overturn the 2020 election results, Pence, who affirmed Biden's victory after a mob overtook the Capitol in an attempt to delay the certification, expressed a different view of the day's events.

"Jan. 6 was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol. But thanks to the swift action of the Capitol Police and federal law enforcement, violence was quelled. The Capitol was secured. And that same day, we reconvened the Congress and did our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States. President Trump and I have spoken many times since we left office and I don't know if we'll ever see eye to eye on that day," Pence said.

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While Trump has kept a relatively low profile since leaving office, he has endorsed several political candidates ahead of the midterm elections, and he is expected to resume rallies in swing states such as Florida, Georgia, and Ohio.

"Relatively soon, we'll be doing one in Florida. We're gonna do one in Ohio. We're gonna do one in Georgia. We're gonna do one in North Carolina," he told One America News last month. "We'll be announcing them very soon over the next week or two, and I think we'll probably start in Florida and Ohio, and we'll be announcing the rallies very shortly."

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