Former Vice President Mike Pence is positioning himself as a ‘constructive force for the conservative agenda’ during President Donald Trump’s second term as one of the few Republicans willing to challenge him.
‘Well, for me, it’s always principles first. It’s not personal,’ Pence said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Despite publicly falling out with Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, Pence said he would support the new Trump administration on issues he agreed with, but would challenge others.
Pence’s political advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom, spent nearly $1 million on ads opposing Trump’s newly confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The former vice president said he and those who work for him received ‘a lot of quiet encouragement’ in opposing Kennedy. Pence described finding it necessary to speak out on finding the ‘nomination of an abortion rights supporter to be secretary of HHS to be a dramatic departure from 50 years of strong pro-life leadership at HHS under Republican administrations.’
Asked why Republicans might be reluctant to oppose Trump publicly, Pence said, ‘I never speculate on motives. You know, I’m not new to town. I’ve waged lonely battles before.’
‘But you know, you have to be willing to step out and lead,’ the former vice president said. ‘My hope is that when the next issue of life comes up, that people will have been encouraged, emboldened to know that they’re not alone.’
Advancing American Freedom is now lobbying against Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s pick for labor secretary, accusing her of being pro-union. While Pence’s group plans to spend the coming months pushing to increase military spending, shrink the deficit, and make permanent the Trump 2017 tax cuts, as well as trying to convince Trump to stop implementing tariffs on allies, the former vice president and those who work for him insist they won’t take on the ‘Never Trump’ mantle.
Pence has been delivering speeches urging Trump to stand with long-standing foreign allies and lobbying members of Congress, while his aides write letters and opinion columns. Advancing American Freedom says they intend to praise the administration when they agree with it, while raising concerns when they don’t, advocating for longtime conservative principles that they believe have taken a back seat to Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ brand of populism.
‘We’re calling balls and strikes here,’ Pence told the AP. ‘I think that the way we want to approach this is with integrity to principle. And I’m very encouraged. I think the Trump administration is off to a great start… I’m very pleased about the president undoing Biden’s border policies and putting back into place the policies that we had negotiated and established that secured the border.’
Pence said he believes ‘some of the prominent voices in the party have embraced a more populist thinking’ but that ‘the overwhelming majority of people that ever vote Republican think any differently than they thought during our administration when we hewed to a conservative agenda or the years before or since.’ To support his opinion, the former vice president recalled an interaction he had with a farmer at a campaign stop in Iowa in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel.
Despite the farmer saying he agreed with ‘absolutely everything’ that Pence stumped about regarding ‘strong American support for Israel, strong American leadership in the world, continued support for Ukraine in their fight and limited government and bringing about reforms to put our fiscal house in order and right to life,’ the former vice president recalled how the farmer said he could not vote for him in 2024 and that ‘I got to be for Trump this time.’
‘And he goes, ‘But I’ll see you in four years. You’re going to be a great president someday,” said Pence, who briefly pursued the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. ‘I said, ‘Would you mind telling me, you know, why?’ And he said words I never forgot, which was in effect: He lamented Biden’s failed record. And I saw that he was drawn to the need for a rematch. And then he said, ‘Plus, if they can do that to a former president, they can do that to me.’ And the ‘lawfare’ stuff went into higher relief.’
‘So I didn’t see in this last election a Republican Party that was embracing big government or a vision to pull back from America’s commitments on the world stage or marginalizing the right to life,’ Pence told the AP. ‘I didn’t see that traveling all over the country and I still don’t see it. I think there were other factors that gave the former president a decided advantage in the election. He’d earned it. He’d won it. And then he won it in the fall. But I don’t think the party’s changed.’
Pence told the AP that he went to Trump’s inauguration last month and ‘was very moved in the outpouring of kind words and expressions of appreciation from former colleagues, including many members of the new administration who I encountered in hallways.’ When he saw Trump’s new secretary of state, Marco Rubio, Pence said he gave him a hug and ‘told him how proud I was of him.’
‘We had praised him from here when he was selected,’ Pence told the AP. ‘I must have seen or interacted with about half the incoming Cabinet.’
At the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, Pence said he had a ‘very cordial exchange’ with Trump. When Trump was coming down the front row of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Pence recalled him saying, ‘Hi, Mike.’ Pence said he extended his hand to Trump and said, ‘Congratulations, Mr. President,’ and ‘I could see his countenance softened. And he said, ‘Thanks.’’ Pence said he also congratulated first lady Melania Trump.
‘You know, the people that know me know it’s not personal,’ Pence told the AP. ‘I’ve long since forgiven the president for any differences that we had at the end of our administration. We still have those differences as the president still holds the view that, to my knowledge, that I had some authority that I did not have under the Constitution or laws of the country. But from my heart, I’ve prayed often for the president.’
The AP also asked Pence about the viral moment at the funeral in which his wife, former second lady Karen Pence, refused to acknowledge President-elect Trump or shake Melania Trump’s hand.
‘My wife loves her husband. And I love my wife and I have great respect for her. And so – but I’ve been really moved at how many people around the country have thanked us both for that day,’ Pence said. ‘But again, you know, I want to emphasize, we’re eyes forward here. You know, I’d always thought the president was going to come around on the position he took on Jan. 6.’
In his book, Pence said, he describes how he and Trump ‘actually parted on very amicable terms, very good terms,’ but in the spring, when Trump ‘returned to the rhetoric about how I could have done something that neither the Constitution nor the law would ever permit any vice president to do, then I just decided it was important to go our separate ways.’
‘But hope springs eternal,’ Pence said. ‘And we want to be a constructive force for the conservative agenda. I think that’s good for the administration. It’s good for the Congress. More importantly, it’s good for America.’
The Associated Press contributed to this report.