Former VP Mike Pence visits New Hampshire for pre-presidential pitstop
By MATTHEW MEDSGER, Boston Herald
Former Vice President Mike Pence didn’t announce his candidacy for the Oval Office but he did outline what a run against President Biden might look like.
He then dropped several hints Wednesday about returning to the Granite State in the coming months.
“American freedom is under attack. Big media, big government and even big business have locked arms, to advance a pernicious woke agenda, designed to control the American people and destroy the American economy. The ruling elites in Washington have never been more out of touch with the values and ideals of everyday Americans,” Pence said.
Pence’s appearance at the St. Anselm College’s Politics and Eggs event isn’t necessarily a sure sign of a pending campaign for the nation’s highest office, but if he were planning to challenge former President Donald Trump’s seeming death grip on the reins of Republican politics the Manchester college is the place to start.
Since the late 90s, almost every candidate to take a primary debate stage in the months before a presidential election has made a trip to New Hampshire’s Queen City for an appearance at the speaker series.
Pence’s relationship with Trump has been described as “strained” in many outlets, but Trump is, by all accounts, still the Republican party’s leading pick for the 2024 election, consistently leading polls.
The former vice president acknowledged Wednesday that he and his former boss have a somewhat rocky relationship.
“It’s fairly well known that President Trump and I have had our differences,” Pence said.
That’s putting it mildly.
Pence was the target of enormous pressure by Trump and his supporters to scuttle certification of the election — some Trump supporters were openly threatening to hang the former vice president as they ransacked the Capitol Building on Jan. 6 — yet he still came to the Trump’s defense on Wednesday, saying he had deep concerns over the unprecedented search of a former president’s home.
Pence’s visit to New England comes in the wake of the August 8th execution of a search warrant at Trump’s golf resort home in Flordia, Mar-a-Lago, in response to information provided to the Department of Justice from the National Archives.
“I was deeply troubled to learn a search warrant had been executed at the personal home of a former President of the United States,” Pence said. “Not nearly enough information has been provided. I’m going to continue to call on the Attorney General to make that information available to the American people.”
Pence however decried attacks on the agents of the FBI and other law enforcement officers, saying that criticism of Attorney General Merrick Garland is fair, but that the actions of law enforcement executing their lawful duty should be met with support from conservatives.
“Calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the police,” he said.
Pence said that he wasn’t pleased to see the Jan. 6 committee operating without the nominated Republican members but nevertheless said that if he was called to speak there he would consider the matter.
Pence also reaffirmed the Republican party’s commitment to holding the first primary in the Granite State, an assertion that was met with applause, before hinting he may return.
“I’ve never spent a lot of time in New Hampshire,” he said. “In the coming months and years, I may.”