Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday teased what a 2024 campaign would look like, shared family folk stories and declared his support for funding the Ukraine war and further abolishing abortion rights – as just 7 percent of GOP voters say he is theirs first choice.
Pence chaired a trio of events in Iowa — the state that will host the first Republican presidential committee — and while he hasn’t announced an official bid that would see him face off against his ex-ticketmate, former President Donald Trump, all were Signs directed to this was the plan.
“All good things begin in Iowa!” Pence exclaimed as he took the stage at the Johnson County Republican Reagan Dinner in Coralville, just outside of Iowa City, on Wednesday night.
It was his third event that day, having breakfasted with a Republican group outside of Des Moines and performing at a luncheon at Cedar Rapids Country Club.
At the Reagan-themed dinner, Pence acknowledged that it was the beginning of a “great Republican victory and a great American comeback in 2024.”
“It has never been more important for Iowa to elect the right Republican Party leadership to lead us out of the failed policies of the Biden-Harris administration,” he said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence works at the Johnson County Republicans Reagan Dinner, his third event in Iowa, Wednesday night while investigating a 2024 presidential nomination
Pence greets a guest at the Johnson County Republicans Reagan Dinner in Coralville, Iowa, just outside of Iowa City while exploring the President’s waters
“All good things begin in Iowa!” Pence exclaimed as he took the stage at the Reagan Republican dinner in Johnson County in Coralville on Wednesday night
Pence spoke to around 100 guests Wednesday night in Coralville, Iowa, his final stop on his final tour of the Hawkeye State
Pence admitted earlier in the day that his relationship with Trump had gone downhill.
They famously split when Pence refused to overturn the 2020 election in his role as overseer of the joint session of Congress when Electoral College votes are counted.
“It’s obvious – it didn’t end well,” he remarked. “But all those four years, the President and I have had a good working relationship. Often with different temperaments, but we both understood each other, we both worked on the same agenda.’
And throughout the day he touted a number of achievements of the administration.
“I couldn’t be prouder than to be a small part of the government that appointed three of the judges who made Roe v. Wade on the ashes of history and gave the American people a fresh start for life,” he told his dinner crowd, which numbered about 100.
“We accomplished so much in those three years before the pandemic,” he added.
Pence participates in a question-and-answer session at Cedar Rapids Country Club for a lunchtime event in Iowa on Wednesday
About 70 people turned out to see Pence speak Wednesday at the Cedar Rapids Country Club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Pence also told the groups about life after the White House.
“One of the great things about not being vice president anymore is that you get to drive your own car,” he remarked – no doubt telling the crowd he bought a John Deere ride-on mower after returning home Indiana was drawn.
John Deere headquarters is just across the Mississippi River from Davenport, Iowa, and that’s something the Hawkeye State is proud of.
He also noted that he is now a grandfather to three granddaughters.
“Karen and I finally found out we have kids — to have grandkids,” he said, laughing.
He recalled his daughter-in-law telling him, “You’re going to be ‘bop'” — a nickname for grandfather that has stuck ever since.
Mrs. Karen drives with the grandchildren with “Kiki” – and even has a license plate with the name on it.
“Which we’ll likely carry over when we have other forms of transportation in the years to come,” Pence said — presumably indicating he’d like to see those license plates adorn the Presidential Beast.
Over breakfast and lunch, Pence answered questions from the audience covering bread-and-butter issues such as inflation and Social Security, the current bipartisan state of the United States, and the war in Ukraine.
Pence expressed the view of most Republicans in Congress – who want to fund the war in Ukraine in a show of force against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The United States must continue to give the Ukrainian military what it needs to repel the Russian invasion,” Pence said.
“Well, I think some of the waning support we’re seeing for this core principle, which is a time-honored American principle, reflects a lack of confidence in President Biden’s leadership, and I understand that,” he added.
Some of those in Congress who are close to MAGA, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have insisted that the US stop pouring billions into the conflict.
Trump has boasted that if he were in office he would have found out about the war in “24 hours”.
During his Iowa tour on Wednesday, Pence held two question-and-answer sessions with reporters — a departure from his tenure as vice president, when he typically let Trump speak for the White House.
At the first stop, he told a small group of reporters that he had yet to decide whether to testify in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 investigation.
He was asked about Tuesday’s ruling by federal judge James E. Boasberg requiring him to testify in the inquest.
He can appeal the verdict.
“I have nothing to hide,” Pence told reporter, answers questions at his first stop in Urbandale, near Des Moines. “I have written and spoken extensively about that day.”
“We will review the best way forward and announce our intentions in the coming days,” the former vice president added.
At his second stop of the day, a lunch at Cedar Rapids Country Club, Pence was asked by reporters if he had been in contact with Trump as he considered what to do.
“I will be speaking to my attorney about the best way forward and I will only be speaking to my attorney,” Pence said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday he has yet to decide whether to testify in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 inquest
“I have nothing to hide,” Pence told reporters, answering questions at his first stop in Urbandale, near Des Moines. “I have written and spoken extensively about that day”
He expressed that he was pleased with the ruling as Boasberg gave Pence some protections as he served as Senate President while also chairing the joint session of Congress to confirm the 2020 election on Jan. 6.
“I can’t speak much about it and matters before the grand jury today, but I can tell you that I’m very pleased that the federal judge agreed with our position that the speech and debate clause of the Constitution extends protections the vice president when I serve as president of the Senate,” Pence told reporters in Cedar Rapids.
“But how the court settled that and how far that protection goes, that’s what we’ll focus on this week when we decide on the next steps,” he added.
Pence’s hand-wringing comes after he stalked Trump over the ex-president’s role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack earlier this month at DC’s elite Gridron dinner.
“President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election and his inconsiderate words put my family and everyone in the Capitol at risk that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable,” Pence said.
A reporter pointed out this quote and asked why Pence shouldn’t then reveal everything he knows.
“If you read my book, if you listen to the speeches and interviews I’ve given over the past two years, you’ll know that I think the American people deserve the whole story,” Pence said. “And I have shared that truth with the American people and will continue to do so.”
But Pence argued that “just like Jan. 6” “major constitutional issues” were at stake.
“But I agree with you, the American people deserve to know history. We shared that story and I think over time people will know that we have nothing to hide, I’m proud of what I did that day, I believe we did the right thing, under the Constitution and in service to the nation,’ he added.
Speaking to the crowd over lunch in Cedar Rapids, Pence also reiterated the point that he does not have the power to overrule what the States had sent him to endorse, advising the GOP crowd that it is the Democrats, who have wrongly tried to “nationalize” elections.
While criticizing Trump’s role on Jan. 6, Pence criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into Stormy Daniels’ hush-money scheme.
On Wednesday, Politico reported that the grand jury linked to the investigation took a month-long, previously planned break, leaving the threat of an indictment hanging over former President Donald Trump’s head deeper in the presidential campaign cycle.
Pence had told ABC’s Jonathan Karl that Bragg’s investigation was “politically charged” and “not what the American people want to see.”
He told in Cedar Rapids that he hadn’t heard about the delay.
“And obviously I don’t know anything about the merits of this case, but I have expressed my concern that there is political persecution taking place in New York, and I continue to hope that the Manhattan Attorney’s Office will think better about it,” he said.
“The reality is that millions of Americans believe that we have a two-tier justice system in this country. One that applies to Democrats and one that applies to Republicans,” the former vice president added. “And I think that the equal justice before the law that every American deserves, and I hope that will be reflected in future decisions.”
While Pence’s aforementioned event was packed, the former VP’s crowd numbered in the dozens, not thousands – and while one potential Iowa caucus-goer told she likes Pence for his temperament and experience, she wasn’t sure whether he could make it through a GOP primary.
Especially given the latest Morning Consult poll, which shows Trump at 52 percent versus Pence’s 7 percent.
The Iowa focus makes perfect sense for Pence — as the winner of the nation’s first GOP caucus tends to go to a traditional conservative.
But in recent cycles, this candidate did not win the Republican nomination.
In 2016 it went to Senator Ted Cruz. In 2012 it was Senator Rick Santorum and in 2008 former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.