http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/vp-pence-could-set-indiana-gop-dominoes-tumbling/article_a1f2f647-0317-5e34-8ede-45813f8110c3.html
Indiana clinched the nomination for Trump. It could also sink him if he makes a political gaffe and choice.
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Take Pence, please.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/07/politics/mike-pence-donald-trump-vp/
Pence introduces Trump at rally that doubles as VP audition
WESTFIELD, Indiana (AP) — Republican Donald Trump campaigned alongside Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Tuesday evening, the latest in a series of public auditions as the billionaire businessman mulls his vice presidential pick.
Walking onto the stage to cheers, Pence confidently introduced the presumptive GOP nominee and vigorously advocated for Trump as the best person to lead the country. The speech made clear that despite his mild-mannered reputation, the governor and former Congressman could serve the role of attack dog if Trump taps him as his running mate.
"Donald Trump hears the voice of the American people," Pence said, saying that the billionaire "understands" the country in a way no one has since Republican icon Ronald Reagan. His voice raised, Pence drew thunderous applause when he warned of dire consequences if Democrat Hillary Clinton is elected.
Pence would be a welcome pick among anxious Republican officials who are looking for a steady, disciplined counterpart to Trump's freewheeling style. GOP officials are already starting to gather in Cleveland ahead of next week's national convention.
Taking the stage after Pence's introduction, Trump surveyed the large crowd packed into a new arena in suburban Indianapolis. "Wow," he declared before calling Indiana, which delivered him the nomination after he won the primary here in May, "a special place."
Trump opened by reading prepared remarks about shootings that have dominated headlines in recent days. He said his comments come "right from the heart." He was speaking hours after a memorial service for police officers slain in Texas.
"Our whole nation grieves and mourns for the loss of five heroes in Dallas," he said. He again referred to himself as "the law and order candidate." And he said "hostility against the police must end." He also touched on the deaths of men in Louisiana and Minnesota at the hands of officers. Video footage of those incidents has riveted the nation.
"It was tough to watch," he said. "We have to figure it out."
He questioned whether inadequate officer training or "something else" was responsible.
Late in the rally, he again spoke about Pence, playfully saying, "I don't know if he's going to be your governor" or join the Trump ticket. Trump is expected to his running mate this week. He and Pence also appeared together at a fundraiser earlier Tuesday.
Many in the crowd said they were hopeful Pence would be chosen by Trump.
Christina Lewellen, of Indianapolis, said Pence would have a calming effect because he "doesn't get caught up in the drama like Donald does."
"I think he'll be a restraining device," Lewellen said. "He's almost like a white Ben Carson ... which is excellent. He's calm, cool and collected."
A Democrat who'd come for the spectacle also said Hoosiers would be delighted to see Pence move on.
Dan Gettelfinger, of Indianapolis, summed up his feelings in two words: "Good riddance."
Donald Trump misses a big opportunity to promote his running mate pick
Melanie Mason
Hours after Donald Trump revealed that Mike Pence would be his running mate, the silver-haired Indiana governor occupied prominent space on a presidential campaign website. The only problem: The website was Hillary Clinton’s.
Clinton’s team published a page to attacking Pence almost immediately after the announcement, describing Trump’s pick as a “would-be disaster for America.”
Meanwhile, on Trump’s website, mention of the Indiana governor was practically invisible, save for an automatic stream of the real estate mogul’s Twitter feed far at the bottom of the page.
Trump’s announcement — fittingly made on Twitter, where he has elevated his unfiltered musings to a political art form — lacked many of the digital trappings of a modern presidential campaign, a reflection of the presumptive GOP nominee’s unorthodox and at times haphazard operation.
And the roll-out stood in stark contrast to Clinton’s rapid response, which included a slickly produced video and talking points in Spanish.
“It's a highly professional, mechanized campaign in Clinton world in Brooklyn, and then over at Trump Tower, it’s all being run out of his back pocket. It's by the seat of his pants,” said Rob Stutzman, a Sacramento-based Republican strategist who does not support Trump.
Soon after Trump tweeted his choice Friday morning, journalists and political observers noted the unveiling was markedly incomplete. One reporter catalogued 11 details the Trump campaign overlooked in the announcement, including a failure to secure relevant Web domains and update Pence’s own campaign website. (Pence dropped out of the governor’s race on Friday in order to join the ticket.)
Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign was quick to capitalize on the announcement. It organized a conference call with groups supporting gay and abortion rights to denounce the pick, and texted supporters about the news, coupling attacks on Pence’s record with a fundraising appeal.
And then there’s Trump’s new logo, revealed in a fundraising missive. The interlocking T and P struck some observers as hastily designed, with its apparently inadvertently graphic overtones.
These may be small details, but Stutzman said the omissions were symptomatic of a disorganization that could spill over into crucial digital operations like fundraising or targeting key voters.
“This is evidence that suggests that this is not a well-managed, well-run, state-of-the art campaign,” he said.
#Never Hillary
The Ultimate ODD COUPLE
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I'll take a odd couple over a liar,crook and enabler anyday.
This is sad:
Sad is Policemen getting shot all over this once great country and all Obama and Hillary can talk about is BLM. Politics on Hillary's part showing up in the worst form. Poor policies by the Democrats have led to nearly half the population with an inadequate education and dependent on the Government for their very existence. Let's get someone in the oval office(and Congress) who attempts to get America back to work and not reliant on handouts. First African American President and race relations have taken a major step backwards. So much "Hope" in 2008 has vanished. Noble Peace Prize winner, what a joke the world is in worse shape due to America's lack of leadership during Barry's two terms. Maybe he can go back to being a Community organizer in Chicago come January 2017 and solve gang issues and race relations since he couldn't do any of this in eight years as President.
Half the RNC speeches....are plagiarized:
This is sick:
He was just playing to the Democratic base of LGBT's.
Geez, Trump just added a: 'Q' to LGBT.
Well we know that isn't Melania in the picture however the face does look familar.
Young boy to Pence: Are you Trump's apologist?
At a North Carolina town hall Thursday, among the toughest questions Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence faced came from an 11-year-old boy.
By BIANCA PADRÓ OCASIO 08/04/16
“I’ve noticed you’ve been softening up on Trump’s words and policies. Is this going to be your role in the administration?” the boy asked Pence as the crowd erupted in laughter
“What I’ve learned, Matthew, and you’ll learn it when you’re governor of North Carolina … Sometimes things don’t come out the way that you mean them,” Pence said. “I couldn’t be more proud to stand with Donald Trump,” Pence added.
Trump has dealt with an array of controversies over the past week, including a public feud with the parents of a deceased U.S. soldier and a flap over the Republican nominee’s refusal to endorse Paul Ryan in the House speaker’s upcoming primary. In both cases, Trump’s running mate seemed to try to lessen the tension, with Pence praising the parents’' sacrifice and saying that he endorsed Ryan with Trump’s encouragement.
On Thursday, Trump’s running mate also slammed Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, saying they played major roles in secretly sending money to the Iranian government the morning that it released four Americans, adding they “essentially put a price tag on every American” who goes abroad.
Pence insisted Clinton should be automatically disqualified from being president, and he took an opportunity to painted the media as in cahoots with Democrats.
“The funny thing is the party in power seems helpless to figure out our nominee. And of course, I’m referring to the media,” he said. “I mean the media, and the Democrats, they all have the same problems. They all keep telling each other the usual methods are going to work against him, they keep thinking they’ve done him in, they think this is over, we finally got him, and they turn on the TV the next morning and Donald Trump is still standing and fighting in front of thousands of people and he will make America great again.”
I'm sure the bright 11 year old boy came up with this question on his own. When is the last time Crooked Hillary had a press conference? That's right she can't answer questions on the fly. Telepromptor Queen(sigh)
The real pressing issue and question now in this race....is if Pence will move to the TOP of the ticket.....when his bombastic boss drops out before the election...as everyone now seems to be predicting.
http://politi.co/2aJgKGs
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If he does move to the top I hope he makes school of choice an option everywhere and for everyone. He could make closing down underperforming schools a priority.
Pence made the biggest mistake of his political career hitching his wagon to Trump.
Trump has "succeed" by taking all attention off of everything that Hillary Clinton has ever done. Instead she is literally running on a platform, of "hey y'all watch him!". That is why the damage has been done. This isn't a Presidential election, it is a circus. No one is looking at HIllary anymore.
This is a classical shrewd Trump SETUP:
Pence urges investigation into Clinton 'pay-to-play'
The Indiana governor also said Trump will lay out his vision to defeat ISIS on Monday.
By COLIN WILHELM 08/14/16
Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence is calling for an investigation into whether contributions to the Clinton Global Initiative influenced Hillary Clinton’s decisions as secretary of state.
“The new emails that have been made public just in the last week seem to make a direct connection between favors done by State Department officials and major foreign donors to the Clinton Foundation,” the Indiana governor said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Asked whether there is any actual evidence that Clinton, now the Democratic presidential nominee, made decisions driven by those donations, Pence hedged at first and then doubled down.
“Certainly, officials at the FBI, we also found out this week, believe that there should be an investigation, and Obama's Department of Justice apparently has shut that down,” Pence said. “The public has a right to know, because this — really and truly, this is exactly the kind of pay-to-play politics the American people are, are sick and tired of. But, frankly, it is just one more example of the way I do believe that the Clintons have been operating over the last 30 years.”
Pence seemed to contradict Donald Trump’s claim that he was being sarcastic when he labeled called Clinton and President Barack Obama the founders of the Islamic State.
“Well, I think he was being very serious, and he was making a point that needs to be made, that there is no question that the failed policies of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in the wider Middle East, created a vacuum within Iraq in which ISIS was able to arise,” Pence said in the Fox interview, taped Friday in the Indiana governor’s mansion. “Donald Trump has a way of talking to get people’s attention, and it’s drawn attention to a very important issue.”
The Republican presidential nominee will detail his plan to defeat ISIS in a major speech on Monday in Ohio, Pence said.
“He’s going to lay out his vision and his strategy for defeating radical Islamic terrorism,” Pence said.
Trump’s Self-Reckoning
The GOP nominee and his supporters face a moment of truth.
WSJ
Donald Trump lashed out at the media on Sunday after more stories describing dysfunction inside his presidential campaign. “If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn’t put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%,” Mr. Trump averred on Twitter.
Mr. Trump is right that most of the media want him to lose, but then that was also true of George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. It’s true of every Republican presidential nominee. The difference is that Mr. Trump has made it so easy for the media and his opponents.
The latest stories comport with what we also hear from sources close to the Trump campaign. Mr. Trump’s advisers and his family want the candidate to deliver a consistent message making the case for change. They’d like him to be disciplined. They want him to focus on growing the economy and raising incomes and fighting terrorism.
They think he should make the election a referendum on Hillary Clinton, not on himself. And they’d like him to spend a little time each day—a half hour even—studying the issues he’ll need to understand if he becomes President.
Is that so hard? Apparently so. Mr. Trump prefers to watch the cable shows rather than read a briefing paper. He thinks the same shoot-from-the-lip style that won over a plurality of GOP primary voters can persuade other Republicans and independents who worry if he has the temperament to be Commander in Chief.
He also thinks the crowds at his campaign rallies are a substitute for the lack of a field organization and digital turnout strategy. And he thinks that Twitter and social media can make up for being outspent $100 million to zero in battleground states.
By now it should be obvious that none of this is working. It’s obvious to many of his advisers, who are the sources for the news stories about dysfunction. They may be covering for themselves, but this is what happens in failing campaigns. The difference is that the recriminations typically start in October, not mid-August.
These stories are appearing now because the polls show that Mr. Trump is on the path to losing a winnable race. He is now losing in every key battleground state, some like New Hampshire by double digits. The Midwest industrial states he claimed he would put into play—Wisconsin, Pennsylvania—have turned sharply toward Mrs. Clinton.
More ominously, states won by John McCain and Mitt Romney are much closer than they should be. If Mr. Trump is fighting to hold Georgia, Arizona and even Utah by September, a landslide defeat becomes all too possible.
The tragedy is that this is happening in a year when Republicans should win. The political scientist Alan Abramowitz has spent years developing his “time for a change” forecasting model. The model looks at the rate of GDP growth in the second quarter of an election year (1.2% this year), the incumbent President’s approval rating, and the electorate’s desire for change after one party has held the White House for eight years.
No model is perfect, but Mr. Abramowitz’s has predicted the winner of the major-party popular vote in every presidential election since 1988. His model predicts that Mr. Trump should win a narrow victory with 51.4%. A mainstream GOP candidate who runs a reasonably competent campaign would have about a 66% chance of victory.
Mr. Trump has alienated his party and he isn’t running a competent campaign. Mrs. Clinton is the second most unpopular presidential nominee in history—after Mr. Trump. But rather than reassure voters and try to repair his image, the New Yorker has spent the last three weeks giving his critics more ammunition.
Even with more than 80 days left, Mr. Trump’s window for a turnaround is closing. The “Trump pivot” always seemed implausible given his lifelong instincts and habits, but Mr. Trump promised Republicans. “At some point I’ll be so presidential that you people will be so bored, and I’ll come back as a presidential person, and instead of 10,000 people I’ll have about 150 people and they’ll say, boy, he really looks presidential,” he said in April.
Those who sold Mr. Trump to GOP voters as the man who could defeat Hillary Clinton now face a moment of truth. Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Paul Manafort and the talk-radio right told Republicans their man could rise to the occasion.
If they can’t get Mr. Trump to change his act by Labor Day, the GOP will have no choice but to write off the nominee as hopeless and focus on salvaging the Senate and House and other down-ballot races. As for Mr. Trump, he needs to stop blaming everyone else and decide if he wants to behave like someone who wants to be President—or turn the nomination over to Mike Pence.
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Mike Pence’s other life
The Indiana governor this weekend took a break from being Trump’s running mate — trading talk of the Islamic State and Benghazi for chitchat on soccer and raccoons.
By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM 08/16/16
COLUMBUS, Ind. — On Monday, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence returned to his role as Donald Trump’s running mate, joining his beleaguered partner in Ohio and talking about a plan to defeat the Islamic State.
It was a far cry from Saturday, when Pence talked strategy for defeating a different nemesis: raccoons.
“We have a serious raccoon problem,” Pence explained to Kim Hoeltke at a Columbus, Indiana, farmers market, discussing the vegetable garden behind the governor’s mansion. “We really do.”
His wife, Karen Pence, at his side, looked ready to move on. But Trump’s running mate wanted to keep discussing raccoons. Per the governor, the creatures really enjoy sweet corn, including the stock growing behind the governor’s mansion. Later, Pence was purchasing corn at Hackman’s corn stand (it was like a stand selling corn), where one 14-year-old saleswoman was not star struck by the man who could soon be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
“I’ve met him like 10 times ... Over 10 times,” the young woman, Allana, said as Pence approached the corn stand.
Pence spent Saturday ostensibly campaigning for Indiana Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb, who is seeking to succeed him in November. But he was also taking a trip into a life that was his full-time as little as a month ago, working the friendly, folksy and carefully honed persona he rode to the top of Indiana politics before joining Trump’s ticket.
It’s still a deeply political errand. Pence knew how to gently shift a constituent mid-conversation to give the press cameras a better view, gently placing a hand on her arm, shifting their positions so that they both faced toward a gaggle of reporters who stood a few feet away with their cameras trained on the governor. His wife praised Trump to a man and his grandson, standing plainly within earshot of the press. “Mr. Trump — he’s so, so kind,” she said.
It is, however, a political errand that exists at least partly outside of Trump’s shadow. Yes, the gaggle of national reporters tracked his every move, and yes, they queried him about his tax returns.
But Pence ignored them, for once unencumbered by Trump’s controversies as he lavished his attention on the good people of Columbus, Pence’s childhood hometown. And as Pence made his was from Upland Pump House to the farmers market to Joe Willy’s Burger Bar on a grey Saturday, his love for the intimacy of retail politicking was on display.
With hugs and handshakes, and many a “Good to see ya” and “How’s the family?” the stops felt more like Pence was running for mayor of Columbus, as he addressed people by name and never rushed a conversation.
At the burger restaurant, Pence moved from table to table as waitresses slid through a throng of reporters and curious diners looked on. With Karen at his side, he extended his arm to snap a selfie with two young girls before passing the phone to a staffer for a proper photo. At the next table, he delivered a high five to 4-year-old Alex Utt, and discussed the chaos of youth soccer with the boy's parents, Bryce and Alicia. “Beautiful family,” he quietly remarked before making his way to the kitchen to greet some workers.
This type of retail politicking is the polar opposite of Trump’s operation, which is fueled by mass rallies and media spectacle. Trump has questioned the utility of the small-group addresses.
“Because Trump comes in, he has these big rallies, and then he leaves,” Trump told a crowd in Scranton, PA in late July. “And I’m supposed to have dinner, like, with two people, spend the entire evening then go to another two. And they said ‘why do you do that?’ And I said well I do it because I can get the rallies, the other people can’t get the rallies.”
And indeed, while Pence was making the rounds in Columbus, Trump spent the weekend in a Twitter war with the national press, including a Sunday tweet about how national outlets unfairly cover his rallies by failing to “show crowd size or enthusiasm.”
By Monday, Pence was back in Trump’s world, having flown to Ohio for Trump’s foreign policy address and echoing his media attacks. “While many in the national media continue to major in the minors, focusing on semantics over substance, today you will hear once again, a man who will remain focused on the solutions to the real challenges facing the people of the United States of America,” Pence said while introducing Trump.
Tuesday, he’ll head to two solo events in New Mexico and then on to stops in Nevada and New Hampshire later in the week. The travel schedule will only get more intense as Election Day nears, taking Pence farther and more frequently away from the home state stops at farmers markets and burger joints.
All I will say Mike is I will cancel your vote out. #Never Hillary
Trump needs to be more Trumpian.
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Pence builds bridges, alone
He’s reaching out to the GOP establishment in hopes of uniting the party, but the establishment isn’t warming to Trump, and Trump isn’t helping.
By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — Mike Pence is on a mission to mend fences between recalcitrant Republicans and Donald Trump, but Trump isn’t helping him do it.
Pence is hoping his years in the upper echelons of Republican politics will help him win over Republicans still skeptical of their party’s nominee, but his bid has gotten little help from the top of the ticket. The plan for GOP outreach started with Pence, his aides confirm, and while Trump nominally supports the effort, he hasn’t taken an active part in it. Pence, not Trump, picks who gets meetings and phone calls, and when Pence does speak with fellow Republicans, Trump does not send along guidance or specific messages for his running mate to convey. The extent of Trump’s participation is to discuss with Pence some, but not all, of his meetings.
Asked about the outreach process, Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks said the Pence campaign would reply.
Trump’s lack of involvement hasn’t stopped Pence from trying to win over Trump skeptics. He met with his longtime friend Sen. Jeff Flake in Arizona, spoke by phone with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and left a voicemail for Ohio Gov. John Kasich (Kasich returned the call, but the two had not connected as of Tuesday morning). Pence told Flake that Trump is “a different guy in private than he is shown in public,” according to Flake.
So far, however, none of the men Pence contacted have warmed to Trump — Republican insiders say that, absent big changes from Trump, his running mate's outreach effort is unlikely to have much success.
“He's going to be a good soldier,” Rick Tyler, who worked for Cruz, said of Pence, acknowledging that reaching out to anti-Trump Republicans is part of the job. As to whether the overtures would work, however, Tyler had a simple answer: “No.”
Stuart Stevens, a top strategist for Mitt Romney in 2012 and a vocal Trump critic, was specific in what Pence could do to win over GOP skeptics: “My outreach plan would be to have Pence replace Trump. I think that would work.”
Trump’s troubles with the GOP establishment were profound even before he it became public that he was shaking up his campaign leadership with the addition of Stephen Bannon, formerly a top executive at Breitbart News whose withering attacks are directed equally at Democrats and the Republican establishment. (The other half of the staff shakeup, Kellyanne Conway’s elevation to campaign manager, may help Pence’s efforts and influence on the ticket, as she previously worked as a pollster for Pence.)
Pence’s support for even those Republicans who do not support Trump can have awkward consequences. When he was asked Tuesday at a New Mexico town hall why some Republicans, such as Gov. Susana Martinez, are not supporting the nominee, he responded by calling Martinez “a dear, dear friend” and “a great governor.” The crowd booed.
Pence has also made efforts with some GOP backers of Trump who have been less than enthusiastic in their support. He spoke by phone with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and set up an in-person meeting with Sen. John McCain in Arizona.
And Pence had more opportunities to evangelize on Trump’s behalf with fellow Republicans on Tuesday, when he made his way to Aspen, Colorado, to deliver a lunchtime address to the Republican Governors Association Summer Meeting. Among those in attendance at the meeting were Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, both of whom have said they will not support Trump. Martinez, who was a target of Trump’s ire earlier this year, was also in attendance, and spoke with Pence. Pence, who has served in the Indiana statehouse since 2013, has a personal rapport with many in attendance that Trump does not. And Pence, of course, has refrained from attacking his fellow Republicans.
Among some vehemently anti-Trump Republicans, however, no amount of Pence outreach can paper over their differences, leaving Pence searching for a consolation prize: keeping them from vocally opposing Trump, and depriving Hillary Clinton's campaign of more fodder from the anti-Trump wing of the GOP.
Even as Pence has made these efforts, Trump has continued to alienate his fellow Republicans, including by initially declining to endorse McCain and House Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump’s addition of Brietbart editor Stephen Bannon as his campaign manager has the potential to further marginalize some moderate Republicans, which could make Pence's job even tougher. After the latest turmoil at the top of the campaign, Stevens said he sees more Republicans un-endorsing the candidate than actually coming on board. And the self-interest may continue to drive Republicans away from Trump as he languishes in the polls.
Even if his efforts fail to yield fruit, however, the outreach is a no-lose affair. Regardless of what it does to help Trump's campaign, it keeps Pence’s cachet with the establishment intact, protecting a potential political future should Trump fall short in November.
Pence will be in a powerful position if Trump loses in November, having built a national network and profile. He could potentially run for a Democrat-controlled Senate seat in Indiana in 2018, or aim for the GOP presidential nomination in 2020. But both advocating for Trump and avoiding being brought down by him makes for a difficult balancing act.
Tyler, the former Cruz campaign aide, was skeptical that respect for Pence would win Republicans over to Trump.
“Their own judgment is going to override Mike's efforts. They know what he’s trying to do,” Tyler said.
Stevens, again, was more blunt.
"Donald Trump is a ridiculous human being,” Stevens said Wednesday. "In life, when a good friend of yours suggests that you go out with a crazy person, that doesn’t make the person any less crazy. They’re still crazy.”
Pence dismisses concerns about Clinton's health, stokes fears of 'rigged' election
By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM 08/30/16 05:03 PM EDT
Mike Pence dismissed concerns about Hillary Clinton’s health on Tuesday, but he continued to stoke worries about Democrats stealing the election from Donald Trump via mass voter fraud.
“I would tell you I think your skepticism is well-founded, but the response ought to be action,” Pence told a questioner at a Georgia town hall who said she worried the election would be “rigged.”
Pence encouraged people in the audience to work at their local polling places to ensure the integrity of the vote, as he has encouraged other audiences that have raised the question.
But while stoking fears of fraud, Pence pushed back against claims that Clinton was covering up serious health troubles. Pence was asked by one audience member for his thoughts on whether Clinton should release her health records given, the questioner said, “claims made by several doctors including Dr. Ben Carson and Dr. Drew off of CNN and other professionals concerning Hillary Clinton’s deteriorating health and judgment ability.”
“I’m less concerned about her bad health as I am about her bad ideas,” Pence said. “That’s the stuff that keeps me up at night. I mean, she wants to raise taxes … She thinks Obamacare is just a good start.”
Pence did say Clinton and Trump ought to release their health records.
“The public always has a right to know,” he said.
Another questioner broached the subject of illegal immigration — once the signature issue of the campaign that has become muddled in recent days as Trump has waffled about whether or not he actually supports deporting the 11 million people here illegally, as he previously said.
The questioner referred to “anchor babies,” which she defined as a child “born to two illegals.” She incorrectly stated that only children born to two naturalized citizens are citizens under the 14th Amendment. In fact, anyone born in the United States are granted citizenship under the Civil War-era amendment. Pence did not correct her. Trump has previously questioned the principle of birthright citizenship.
Pence demurred on any specifics, telling the questioner to watch Trump’s immigration address scheduled for tomorrow.
“Get ready for a speech tomorrow night,” Pence said. “I don’t want to get too far ahead of him, but wait about 24 hours, you’re going to hear a lot of detail.”
During a recent interview, Pence also sidestepped the issue, saying Trump’s calls for mass deportation were “a mechanism, not a policy.”
“I’m overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I’ve championed for years”--David Duke
Pence: Gennifer Flowers will not be at debate
Kyle Chenney
Mike Pence insisted Sunday that Gennifer Flowers — who claimed to have an affair with Bill Clinton before his presidential run — would not be attending Monday’s debate, despite Donald Trump’s invitation.
“Gennifer Flowers will not be attending the debate tomorrow night,” he told Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace speaking of the event slated for Hofstra University in New York.
Pence said Trump’s suggestion he might invite Flowers was a “tweet” in response to Hillary Clinton’s campaign decision to invite mogul Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, to sit in the front row of the debate.
“Hillary Clinton apparently thinks this is an episode of 'Shark Tank,'” he said, adding, “Mark Cuban has been out there saying some pretty tough stuff about my running mate … [He] knows about as much about national security as I do about professional basketball.”
Indiana made the news again.
http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-pence-syrian-refugees-nightmare-speculation-indiana-2016-10
I wrote to Gov. Pence when this went out - knowing full well this would happen. I also find it hard to believe that a evangelical Christian would ever issue an edict like this. Godless Europe is shouldering 85% of the refugees - the USA about 2% - while the Christian crusade does it's best to elect a xenophobe.
Meanwhile, 2nd rep Walorski wants to keep open a jail that costs over $10 million/prisoner. Now there's some good ol' conservatism for you!
http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local/walorski-keep-guantanamo-open/article_1e20b27f-cdd2-57dd-a008-28588ded368f.html
The hypocrisy is as thick as it gets.
WHO WON THE VP DEBATE?
http://bit.ly/2dJHg8F
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For once I have to agree with Mr. OxyContin:
http://bit.ly/2dLqNkg
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Jon Huntsman calls on Trump to drop out of the race
By MADELINE CONWAY 10/07/16 08:58 PM EDT
Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah who had endorsed Donald Trump for president, is calling on the Republican nominee to drop out of the race and leave his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, to take his place at the top of the ticket.
“In a campaign cycle that has been nothing but a race to the bottom — at such a critical moment for our nation — and with so many who have tried to be respectful of a record primary vote, the time has come for Governor Pence to lead the ticket,” Huntsman told The Salt Lake Tribune.
Huntsman, a Republican who ran for president in 2012, called on Trump to bow out of the race in the wake of revelations that he had made a series of aggressive sexual comments about women, bragging about groping them, in a private conversation in 2005.
The Washington Post published video and audio from that conversation, between Trump and NBC’s Billy Bush, on Friday, prompting a flurry of condemnation from other Republicans, including Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Democrats have been quick to jump on the comments to further their argument that Trump is sexist.
If anywhere, Huntsman’s rebuke of Trump would be most likely to resonate in his home state of Utah, which is reliably Republican but has a large Mormon population with whom Trump’s rhetoric about women is not likely to sit well.
Another prominent Republican with roots in Utah, Mitt Romney, has refused to endorse Trump and also offered sharp criticism of the nominee’s leaked comments. Evan McMullin, a conservative who is running a long-shot independent bid for president, was born in the state.
Pence backs off from subbing for Trump in Wisconsin as fallout intensifies
Tony Cook , Chelsea Schneider and Maureen Groppe , IndyStar 2:30 p.m. EDT October 8, 2016
Trump's lewd comments about women cause some GOP leaders to distance themselves from him
It is expected that Gov. Mike Pence will no longer stand in for Donald Trump at a Republican Party event in Wisconsin on Saturday.
Pence said Saturday he was "offended by the words and actions" of his running mate, a statement that came just hours after a devastating recording surfaced in which Donald Trump makes lewd comments about women
Pence’s statement did not address the Wisconsin event. But a source familiar with the plan confirmed to IndyStar that Pence no longer planned to attend.
Pence had been set to replace Trump at the GOP event, after U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, called off Trump’s appearance. Pence’s lieutenant governor and Republican candidate for Indiana governor Eric Holcomb also denounced Trump’s comments.
Trump, meanwhile, issued a statement apologizing “if anyone was offended.”
The recording of Trump on a hot mic prior to a soap opera appearance in 2005 was obtained by NBC News and the Washington Post.
“I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women — I just start kissing them, it's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything," Trump said. "Grab 'em by the (expletive)."
In his initial written response, Trump said Friday: “This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course — not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.”
Later in the day, Ryan released this statement:
“I am sickened by what I heard today. Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified. I hope Mr. Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves and works to demonstrate to the country that he has greater respect for women than this clip suggests. In the meantime, he is no longer attending tomorrow’s event in Wisconsin.”
Other top Indiana Republicans declined to say whether they still support Trump, but they sharply denounced Trump’s decade-old comments.
“These are absolutely unacceptable thoughts and comments,” Holcomb said.
"I think Donald Trump's terrible comments were beyond offensive,” said U.S. Rep. Todd Young, the Republican candidate competing for Indiana’s open U.S. Senate seat.
After Ryan canceled Trump's Wisconsin appearance, the GOP nominee announced a short time later that he would be "spending the day in New York in debate prep with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Jeff Sessions, and then flying to St. Louis on Sunday for the 2nd Presidential Debate."
The timing of the recording's release couldn’t be worse for Trump, who faces Democrat Hillary Clinton at 9 p.m. Sunday (EST) at Washington University in St. Louis for their second primetime debate with just a month before the Nov. 8 election.
Republicans were still assessing the damage from the recording late Friday. Some called on social media for Trump to step down. Others encouraged Pence to drop out in protest.
"Trump should step down immediately tonight, yielding to Governor Pence as the GOP Nominee," Rob Engstrom, national political director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said on Twitter.
"Does anybody think that a Pence-Ryan ticket wouldn't do better than a Trump-Pence?" Stuart Stevens, a former adviser to 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said on Twitter.
"Mike Pence should be off the ticket by sunrise," John Weaver, a campaign strategist for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, said on Twitter. "He already owns much of what has happened, surely he doesn't want to own this."
In reality though, switching up the ticket would be extremely difficult at this point. Early voting has already started in several states, including the key battleground states of Florida and North Carolina, according to the U.S. Election Project.
While the Republican Party does have a formal process for filling vacancies "by reason of death, declination, or otherwise," it's not clear that a resignation of candidacy would qualify. The party could change the rules, but that would be a lengthy process and virtually impossible to accomplish before the election, according to the Washington Post.
In a video response released early Saturday, Trump showed no interest in stepping aside and apologized again for his lewd comments from 2005.
"I said it, I was wrong and I apologize," Trump said, explaining that the people and experiences he's encountered on the campaign trail have changed him.
Trump added that he is not a perfect person and that his comments from more than a decade ago don't reflect who he is.
But he said there's a big difference between his words and the actions of the Clintons.
"Bill Clinton has actually abused women and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims," Trump said.
He closed his videotaped comments by saying: "See you at the debate on Sunday."
While Pence has not addressed Trump's 2005 comments directly, he previously has dismissed the media’s scrutiny of other controversial Trump comments and tweets, saying he emerges stronger every time.
“He said that, he tweeted that,” Pence said last week during a campaign appearance in Fort Wayne. “They think they finally got him right where they want him, and they turn on the TV the next morning, and Donald Trump is still standing strong fighting for the American people.”
While some Republicans would rather see Pence as the presidential nominee, one political analyst doesn't envision Pence's association with Trump playing out well for him.
"You live by the sword, and you die by the sword – and Donald Trump is a heck of a sword,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
“I think it will hurt (Pence). The Republican Party is in horrible shape, horrible, and how they put the pieces back together with Humpty Dumpty fallen is beyond me. Pence thought he was well positioned for 2020. Look, he certainly will be in the mix, but obviously there will be anti-Trump candidates, probably plural, who will relive Pence’s pro-Trump fall. They are bound to.”
Fiorina calls on RNC to replace Trump as nominee
Eddie Scarry
Former Republican presidential candidate and Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina called on the Republican National Committee to replace Donald Trump as the party's nominee.
In a statement posted Saturday on Facebook, Fiorina said Trump should be replaced at the top of the GOP ticket with his vice presidential nominee.
"Donald Trump does not represent me or my party," the statement said. "I understand the responsibility of Republicans to support their nominee. Our nominee has weighty responsibilities as well. Donald Trump has manifestly failed in these responsibilities... Today I ask Donald Trump to step aside and for the RNC to replace him with Gov. Mike Pence."
Trump found himself engulfed in controversy Friday when a 2005 video resurfaced showing him making vulgar comments about women.
Pence PRAISES Debater Trump, Squelches Talk of Quitting Ticket
Elizabeth Titus emtitus Steven T. Dennis
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump passed one of his most important tests of the second presidential debate Monday by getting full-throated support from running mate Mike Pence, who shut down talk of quitting the ticket despite his disapproval of Trump’s remarks about women.
“Donald Trump stepped up,” Pence said on Fox News. “He showed humility. He showed strength. He expressed genuine contrition for the words that he had used on the video,” unearthed Friday, that showed Trump in 2005 discussing women in graphic terms.
Pence’s reassurance of the ticket’s unity came after a weekend when some senior party members and donors actively stoked the idea of pushing aside Trump for Pence because of Trump’s remarks. That scenario is nearly impossible coming just one month before Election Day -- barring Trump quitting on his own.
Pence said he was “proud” of his running mate and, after an avalanche of Republican lawmakers’ defections, said he hoped others believe in “redemption” and “second chances” as much as he does.
Republican leaders who withdrew their support for Trump included 2008 nominee John McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona. Many called for Pence, the governor of Indiana, to replace Trump at the top of the ticket, including No. 3 U.S. Senate Republican John Thune.
“I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them,” said Pence, a born-again Christian who’s served as a bridge between Trump and the Republican establishment, in a statement Saturday amid the party’s crisis.
Indicating he’d be watching Trump’s Sunday debate performance closely, Pence said in the statement, “I am grateful that he has expressed remorse and apologized to the American people. We pray for his family and look forward to the opportunity he has to show what is in his heart when he goes before the nation tomorrow night.”
Pence’s thumps-up alone doesn’t mean Trump has stopped the crisis in his campaign as many other Republicans have yet to weigh in. Trump’s aides have pledged to continue pushing his critique of former President Bill Clinton’s treatment of women, a topic most senior party leaders see as toxic -- and likely opening the door for Hillary Clinton to become president and endangering Republican seats in Congress.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell condemned Trump’s comments but haven’t revoked their endorsements.
Trump has mixed contrition and counterattacks, taking to Twitter to blast “self-righteous hypocrites” and reiterating in the debate that he apologizes for his comments. He called them “locker-room talk” and said he wasn’t proud of it. He denied that he’d sexually assaulted women -- a denial Pence said he accepted -- and sought to turn claims of mistreating women back on Bill Clinton and on the Democratic nominee.
In another split on the Republican ticket, Trump in the debate said he didn’t share Pence’s view that Russian provocations in Syria should “be met with American strength.”
“He and I haven’t spoken, and I disagree,” Trump said.
Pence accused Martha Raddatz, one of the moderators of Sunday’s debate, of having “mischaracterized” his own comments on Russia and Syria in the Oct. 4 vice-presidential debate, saying he was addressing the Aleppo humanitarian crisis, not the broader conflict in Syria.
“I didn’t begrudge him at all,” Pence said of Trump’s remark.
Pence was scheduled to campaign in North Carolina on Monday as Trump stumps in Pennsylvania. They trail the Democratic ticket by an average of 4.5 percentage points in national polls that also include third-party candidates, survey aggregator RealClearPolitics said.
Indiana will vote Trump/Pence, Holcomb & Young. #Never Hillary. #Never Bayh the Lobbyist # Wilford Brimley lookalike.
I don't see how anyone can live with themselves defending either one of these candidates.
Trump will match Billary tit for tat with the bombshell scandals. Another Orlando or Sandy Bern, and the Trump Pence ticket IS IN.
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Pence 'disappointed' with Republicans abandoning Trump
By Nikita Vladimirov
Donald Trump's running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said Tuesday that he disagrees with Speaker Paul Ryan's decision to back away from Trump and is disappointed in the significant number of Republicans revoking their support.
In an interview with NBC News' Kelly O'Donnell, Pence said that “Paul Ryan is my friend but ... I respectfully disagree with his focus in this campaign.”
"Donald Trump and I couldn't be more grateful for the support that we're receiving from people all across this country, including Republican leaders," he added.
Ryan on Monday said that he would no longer defend the GOP nominee in light of Trump's lewd remarks about women in 2005.
When asked if he felt "let down" by the wave of harsh criticism coming from dozens of top GOP lawmakers, Pence replied that he felt "disappointed."
"Well, certainly we're disappointed. Donald Trump has sought to support Republican candidates in competitive primaries all year long. We're gonna continue to. I'm gonna support all of our Republican nominees all across the country because this election is just that important," he said.
Pence pointed specifically to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), stating that it was "very disappointing that after Donald Trump supported John McCain, that John McCain has chosen to withdraw his support."
Later in the interview, Trump's running mate lauded the Republican nominee for apologizing for his obscene statements about women.
"Donald Trump showed, both Friday night and then Sunday night, the kind of humility to admit that he'd been wrong," he said. "Apologized to his family and apologized to the American people and I'm someone who believes in forgiveness, believes in second chances as the overwhelming majority of American people do."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rKd3H_Nz7o
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Yeah, and I am disappointed with Trump and Pence, so screw them both.
How nice of Dr. Manning to ENDORSE PENCE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX593LWCF-8
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“Yesterday Donald Trump rolled out a 5-point plan to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.,” Pence said to the thunderous applause of the hundreds gathered. He then recapped some of that plan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-OXdxLNB3Q
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Plane carrying Pence skids off runway
By Elizabeth Landers and Eli Watkins, CNN
Updated 9:04 AM ET, Fri October 28, 2016
(CNN)Donald Trump's running mate Mike Pence said Friday he is "fine" following his plane skidding off the runway at LaGuardia Airport on Thursday night, adding there were about "10 seconds of uncertainty."
"We're fine," the Indiana governor told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on "New Day" during a phone interview. "It was about 10 seconds of uncertainty last night, but we're just so grateful to the pilots and to the first responders on the scene and (that) everybody came off the plane safely."
None of the 48 people on board were injured in the rough landing.
Pence said he felt plane fishtail after it landed during a rainy evening in New York, but added that he kept a saying from his son, who is a Marine Corps aviator, in his mind following the incident: "Every landing you walk away from is a successful landing."
The press pool in the back of the aircraft, a Boeing 737-700 chartered from Eastern Airlines that was painted with the campaign's logo, could also feel the plane fishtailing as it touched down and slid off the runway before coming to a very sharp halt in the grass off the side of the runway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPjLDnPqb8Y
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.
Pence calls for information about new Clinton emails
By Evelyn Rupert
October 28, 2016
GOP vice presidential candidate Mike Pence urged the FBI to release more information about the newly discovered emails relating to its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.
In an interview on MSNBC's "Hardball" with Chris Matthews, Pence said the American people have a right to know what was uncovered with less than two weeks to go until the election.
“Obviously it’s a very serious matter, but both Donald Trump and I commend the FBI for their transparency and their willingness to move forward now that they’ve come across new pertinent information," he said. “We’re really calling on the FBI to make this information public.”
On Friday, FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress saying that new emails had been uncovered during the course of a separate case that may relate to Clinton's server. He said the fBI would take "investigative steps" to determine if the messages are pertinent to the Clinton case and whether any contain confidential information.
Pence said getting information out there is key amid the "avalanche" of news surrounding Clinton's emails.
“I truly do believe, as Abe Lincoln said, ‘Give the people the facts, and the republic will be saved.’ “So we’re calling on the FBI to make this information available to the American people," he said.
“The machinery of the justice system will work in its own time, but the American people have a right to know what this new information is and they can make their own judgment.”
Of course you missed the point again.
Al Gore's political career is, in fact, over - and has been since he lost the 2000 election to Bush 43. He went on to make the film "An Inconvenient Truth", which I can assume you haven't seen and if you had, probably wouldn't believe that the earth is actually getting hotter by greenhouse gases being trapped (nice October here - will be hottest on record). He also sat on Apple's Board and others and made a pile of dough in investing. But as far as politics are concerned, he is a ghost. So, no, after he was VP and failed at the Presidency, his political career was over. My point was that Pence is facing political oblivion, like so many others - except with a divided GOP, he really has no place to go. If you and your Fox News fueled right wing-nuts get the GOP, you'll see him as a loser; if the more salient and pliable GOP emerges, he will be radioactive - like most Trumpites. Either way, he is headed to the political scrap heap - perhaps he'll go back into talk radio. As I have said, he'll get a plum DC lobbying job for his loyalty. I wish him well - again - nice guy - just duped.
Though I respect your opinion of who you think will win the presidency, be careful what you wish for. Oh, and all those emails - check this story out:
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/11/11/donald-trump-companies-destroyed-emails-documents-515120.html
It is a terrible shame that the US public can't have good debates like these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW-qyFSLQQU
I made my 12 yo son watch this to show him that we don't need food fights or partisan clap trap to support our democracy. We need good strong candidates who respect each other and the process. Just in case you don't bother to watch, there were no interruptions, no sex talk and not snarky remarks.
Your candidate, the GOP's candidate, is certainly to go down as one of the worst in history and certainly in the cable TV era. How many he will bring down with him is undetermined. This happened with the Tories in Canada - and they didn't recover for a bit - Labor dominates up there now.
Trump is a lying, egotistical, snarky, spoiled child with less intellect than another of your heroes Bush 43 (you remember, the guy who gave us 911, trillion in debt of useless wars, sent the country into its deepest depression in a century). Most of Trump's money spent in the campaign went to his own companies; his own campaign people are not giving to the campaign; he gives nothing to charity. he assaults women with impunity and as a point of arrogance. Can't wait until your granddaughter or niece asks who you who you voted for - snap, just made another Dem.!
But you'll go on hating the guy who brought us out of all this - stopped wars, balanced our economy, built collations, and kept us in peace and prosperity - all bc what he looks like in a swim suit. You'll vote against a flawed by strong public servant (for this guy? what has he ever done for anybody but himself?) - yeah, helping children, women, the poor, guiding the world's problems - that's all of no consequence to your vote - only your own accepted invective from otherwise commercial interests (you did know that Fox News makes billions, didn't you?). Just in case your candidate doesn't win, you won't hear the last of him - he is already monetizing you and all your fellow haters - keep buying those hats - made in China.
Your prediction does have precedence. Bill Clinton gave us a balanced budget (actually a surplus), peace and prosperity, and a few other choice laws like FLMA and plant closure act. but you and your haters voted against Gore. Well done. Hope you get what you want - and throw our country into useless wars and financial ruin - but you wont hear that on Fox News - they'll blame it all on...well...you know who.
Indiana's First Lady Karen Pence introduces Melania Trump:
https://youtu.be/Wjx_ysYHJNo
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Mike D, Climate change really? Go watch another film by Michael Moore and believe all the BS. I hope come November 9th all the liberals in the media and Hollywood are packing their bags for Canada. Good riddance and take all the BLM supporters with you!
ooop he did it again!
i'm not sure about that DC job now
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-pence-election-result_us_581f3c5de4b0aac624850118
Trump will contest the election....even if he 'looses' by a landslide.
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Even as someone who can't stand Trump, the whole "contesting the election" meme is crap. There are seriously people who 16 years later are contesting the 2000 election on the side that is now demanding that Trump accept the election results, no matter what.
That is the kind of hypocrisy that the two parties specialize in though.
Donald Trump and Indiana's Mike Pence WIN presidential race.
The result was a stinging rebuke to Hillary Clinton, who was vying to make history as the nation’s first female president.
Brian Eason November 9, 2016
The New York real estate mogul and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, have secured enough states to clinch an Electoral College victory over Hillary Clinton, AP reports.
Trump’s victory caps a presidential campaign that was as unpredictable — and as bitterly divisive — as any in modern American history. From the moment he entered the Republican presidential primaries, Trump shrugged off critics and doubters to win contest after contest, even when pollsters and members of his own party expected him to fail.
With the win, Republicans will control both chambers of Congress and the presidency for the first time since the George W. Bush era.
The loss was a stinging rebuke to Clinton, who was vying to make history as the nation’s first female president. A former secretary of state, senator and first lady, Clinton was long seen as the favorite in the race, even as she was dogged by transparency questions over her use of a private email server while she served as secretary of state.
Just when she appeared to have solidified her position in swing states after a wave of Trump controversies with just a week until the election, a letter to Congress from FBI Director James Comey thrust Clinton’s emails back into the national spotlight, sowing new doubt among skeptical voters.
Pence, meanwhile, will become the first Hoosier vice president since Dan Quayle served under President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1992.
His running mate was propelled to victory largely by a strong showing on Pence’s home turf: the Midwest. Trump wildly outperformed both Mitt Romney and John McCain in the region, picking up key victories in battleground states such as Ohio.
Trump’s win represents both a repudiation of the status quo, and an endorsement of a nationalist brand of populism that has swept through Europe in recent years. Trump has advocated for ripping up trade agreements in order to spur economic growth, closing the border to Muslims and Syrian refugees, and building a wall to keep out Hispanics, while deporting those who have immigrated here illegally in the past.
His campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” was both a rebuke of establishment politics, and a nostalgia for an unspecified America of old. Markets shuddered as his election became increasingly likely — investors fearing the unknown.
But in an era of stagnant wages, rising health care costs and security threats at home and abroad, voters were willing to take a risk on the unpredictable.
#drain the swamp
Mike Pence introduces President Elect Trump:
https://youtu.be/-smetnW-k28
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Public rally set for VP-elect Pence's return to Indiana
AP
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Republican Party is planning a public rally to welcome Gov. Mike Pence back to the state for the first time as vice president-elect.
A GOP announcement says the rally will take place 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the International Airport Building at Indianapolis International Airport.
The event comes two days after President-elect Donald Trump's election victory. Trump is set to meet President Barack Obama at the White House Thursday.
Pence has only held a handful of Indiana events since being picked as Trump's running mate in July. Pence and his wife, Karen, voted Tuesday at a church near the governor's residence in Indianapolis then headed to New York City to be with Trump.
Pence will travel to Indiana after spending Thursday in Washington, D.C
Pence to play BIG ROLE in Trump administration, aides say
By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM 11/10/16 12:23 PM EST
Mike Pence intends to take on a robust role as vice president, senior aides said, adding that his presence at a series of Capitol Hill meetings with Donald Trump on Thursday underscored his role.
"Mike's presence in the meeting is an indication of the role Mike will play,” a senior Pence aide told reporters on the flight to D.C. “When Trump first vetted Mike, and they sat down and talked about it, Mike asked him how he envisioned the role of the vice president, and it was clear that Mike's experience on Capitol Hill, his experience of 12 years in the House, plus serving in leadership, his familiarity with members of the leadership team there, as well as being a governor and part of the RGA executive committee, he has a lot of relationships not just on Capitol Hill but across state capitals across the country."
The aide continued, "So there is an appreciation that that is something Mike brings, so I think you will see Mike having a very active role as a liaison to Capitol Hill with both Leader McConnell and with Speaker Ryan.”
Pence won’t be “pigeon-holed in a legislative role,” the aide added. “He’s going to have a broader role than that, but a key component will be legislative.”
His broader role has already begun, the aide said. “Mike will have a large role in the transition,” the aide said.
Throughout Trump's turbulent run for president, Pence kept up an active schedule on the campaign trail, often holding two rallies per day during the final stretch. But there were also reports that Pence was kept out of Trump's inner circle at times, as the billionaire relied heavily on the advice of his adult children, though the two spoke by phone every day.
Another aide on Thursday praised the Pence staffers' integration with the Trump staff, and said that has continued into the transition.
“It’s not two teams, it’s one team,” he said. That comes from Trump's and Pence’s own working relationship, he said, the importance of which is demonstrated by Pence’s presence at today’s meetings.
“It’s important not just symbolism, it’s important tactically as they start planning their administration,” he said.
He is going to do the work, just like Kasich was offered.
Meet The Vice President Elect
Michael R. Pence
Vice President Elect Mike Pence is a native Indiana Hoosier who has dedicated his public service life to issues pertaining to fiscal responsibility, economic development and educational opportunity. He is a dedicated husband to Second Lady Elect Karen Pence, and father to their three adult children, Michael, Charlotte and Audrey. Vice President Elect Pence most recently served as the 50th Governor of the State of Indiana before accepting the invitation from President Elect Trump to serve as his running mate.
Vice President Elect Pence was one of six children born to Edward and Nancy Pence. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Hanover College in 1981 and a law degree from Indiana University in 1986. After working for the Indiana Policy Review Foundation he hosted The Mike Pence Show – a syndicated radio show that aired on 18 stations throughout Indiana.
Beginning in 2000, Vice President Elect Pence was elected six times to represent the Sixth District of Indiana in the U.S. House of Representatives where he championed legislation that promoted smaller government and economic growth for the nation. His colleagues quickly recognized his leadership acumen and legislative accomplishments and unanimously elected him to serve as House Republican Conference Chairman and Chairman of the House Republican Study Committee.
Since taking the oath as Indiana Governor in 2013, Pence achieved the largest tax cut in Indiana history while also lowering the business personal property tax and corporate income tax to strengthen the State’s competitive edge in attracting new investment and good-paying jobs. He expanded school choice, increased educational opportunity for families by signing into law the first State funding for pre-K education in Indiana, and addressed Indiana’s skills gap by making career and technical education a priority in every high school. Under his leadership, the State invested more than $800 million in new money for roads and bridges in Indiana.
The Governor has worked with the Indiana General Assembly to craft an honestly balanced budget that maintains strong reserves for the State and continues to generate a surplus. This fiscal discipline has helped Indiana maintain its AAA credit rating and earn a global reputation as a great place to do business.
As Governor, Vice President Elect Pence managed a State employee workforce of approximately 28,000 and a State budget of $30.6 billion. He oversaw the duties of the executive branch as the State’s chief executive officer, recommended and reviewed legislation with members of the Indiana General Assembly, and served as the commander-in-chief of the Indiana National Guard.
A strong supporter of the military, Pence has made a priority of reducing veteran unemployment and, while in Congress, he visited Hoosier soldiers in Iraq and/or Afghanistan every year since hostilities began.
https://www.greatagain.gov/meet-vice-president-elect.html
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(Back Home Again in) Indiana:
https://youtu.be/KZWj4dXXqnk
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Vice President-Elect Mike Pence Speech at Veterans Day Ceremony in Edinburgh, IN :
https://youtu.be/Im39Ulm4V4c
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UPDATE: Amid signs of transition trouble, Trump huddles with Pence
KEN THOMAS and JULIE PACE Associated Press
NEW YORK — Hidden from the public in his Manhattan high-rise, Donald Trump huddled Tuesday with Vice President-elect Mike Pence as he tried to fill out key posts in his Cabinet. But the transition team appeared to be straining under the enormous challenge of setting up a new administration.
Former Rep. Mike Rogers, a respected Republican voice on national security issues, announced he was quitting the transition effort. An apparent clerical oversight effectively halted the Trump team's ability to coordinate with President Barack Obama's White House.
Trump himself broke with protocol Tuesday night by leaving Trump Tower without his press contingent. The transition team had told reporters and photographers there would be no movement by the president-elect for the rest of the day and night, but less than two hours later a presidential-style motorcade rolled out of the building, suggesting that Trump was on the move and leaving reporters scrambling.
Trump turned up at Club 21, a midtown Manhattan restaurant where he was having dinner with his family. Reporters were not allowed inside, and Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks asked that they respect that he was having an evening out with his family.
With no public statements from Trump on the transition itself, his allies engaged in an unusual round of public speculation about his potential appointments — including their own futures — as the president-elect and his aides weighed the nation's top national security posts.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani seemed to be angling for secretary of state. But Trump's transition team was reviewing Giuliani's paid consulting work for foreign governments, which could delay a nomination or bump Giuliani to a different position, according to a person briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak publicly about it.
Giuliani founded his own firm, Giuliani Partners, in 2001, and helped businesses on behalf of foreign governments, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. He also advised TransCanada, which sought to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and helped the maker of the painkiller drug OxyContin settle a dispute with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
A Trump official said John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, remained in contention for secretary of state. Bolton has years of foreign policy experience, but he has raised eyebrows with some of his hawkish stances, including a 2015 New York Times op-ed in which he advocated bombing Iran to halt the country's nuclear program.
Businessman Carl Icahn disclosed on Twitter, based on conversations with the president-elect, that Trump was considering Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker, and Wilbur Ross, a billionaire investor, to lead the Treasury and Commerce departments.
Pence, now running the transition team, ignored questions from reporters both as he entered Trump Tower, a thick binder tucked under his arm, and as he left six hours later. He took over from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who spent months running transition operations before his demotion last week.
The switch has slowed Trump's ability to coordinate with the White House. Pence has yet to sign a memorandum of understanding facilitating interactions between his team and Obama administration officials. Christie had signed the document, but Pence's promotion makes it invalid.
A person familiar with the transition efforts said different factions in Trump's team "are fighting for power."
Indeed, Trump effectively created two power centers in his White House even before taking office. He named Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff and flame-throwing media mogul Steve Bannon as his chief strategist, but called them "equal partners." Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is also deeply involved in the transition, creating another layer of uncertainty about who is making decisions.
"That organization right now is not designed to work," according to the person close to the efforts, who like others involved in the transition, insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the internal process.
Former GOP national security official Eliot Cohen blasted Trump's team on Twitter, calling them "angry, arrogant." Cohen opposed Trump during the campaign, but in recent days, he said those who feel duty-bound to work in a Trump administration should do so. But he said Tuesday that after an exchange with Trump's team, he had "changed my recommendation."
Meanwhile, Trump made time to call New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to pass on his sympathies for the powerful earthquake there that killed two people. In the call, which was announced not by Trump's office but by Key's, the two also discussed New Zealand's economy and trade issues.
With Trump's team divided, emboldened Republicans on Capitol Hill moved forward with a united front. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a lukewarm Trump supporter during the campaign, unanimously won his GOP colleagues' votes for another term at the helm of the House. He told fellow Republicans he had Trump's support, and heralded "the dawn of a new, unified Republican government."
Democrats, reeling from sweeping defeats in the election, focused their ire on Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement.
"If Trump is serious about seeking unity, the first thing he should do is rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said. "As long as a champion of racial division is a step away from the Oval Office, it would be impossible to take Trump's efforts to heal the nation seriously."
Trump's team has defended Bannon and tried to put its focus on filling the top national security jobs. Trump's selections will be the first signals to anxious international allies about the direction he plans to take U.S. foreign policy.
Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, a loyal Trump ally and immigration hard-liner, is said to be a contender for defense secretary.
Trump also is considering Richard Grenell as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, which would bring some experience and diversity to his nascent administration. Grenell, who served as U.S. spokesman at the U.N. under President George W. Bush, would be the first openly gay person to fill a Cabinet-level foreign policy post.
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Pace reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jonathan Lemire, Jill Colvin, Josh Lederman, Robert Burns and Erica Werner contributed to this report.
Watch: Mike Pence gets BOOED as he arrives for performance of 'Hamilton'
Chris Megerian
Mike Pence, the vice president-elect, took a break from planning the next administration on Friday night by attending the popular Broadway show "Hamilton."
Though Pence received a smattering of applause when he arrived, the New York audience mostly greeted the Indiana governor with boos.
The hip-hop musical about one of the country's founding fathers, with its multicultural cast and tale of immigrant pride, has been a favorite of liberals. One of its songs was first performed at the White House when creator Lin-Manuel Miranda was a guest of President Obama.
And when Friday's show ended, the cast shared a message to Pence.
"We welcome you and truly thank you for joining us here," said Brandon Dixon, one of the performers. "We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us."
Dixon added, “But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us."
https://youtu.be/GMp6WHWJHf4
That is honestly pretty awesome. Not sure what he expected from that cast to be honest.
Trump nominates Pence ally to oversee health programs
Brian Slodysko Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — The architect of Gov. Mike Pence's Medicaid expansion in Indiana is expected to play a key role in determining how Republicans replace President Barack Obama's health care law.
Seema Verma, a consultant who helped design Pence's approach to the Medicaid program for the poor in Indiana, was named Tuesday as Donald Trump's choice to head up the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Republicans praised her nomination. President-elect Trump said in a statement that her decades of experience "will transform our health care system for the benefit of all Americans."
But supporters of the current health care law were less pleased. They oppose requirements that poor people pay for medical care, which is included in the Medicaid policy adopted in Indiana and is up for consideration by other Republican-led states.
"We're really concerned," said Judith Solomon, vice president for health policy at the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Prior to Pence, Verma was a consultant to former Republican Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who pushed for a precursor to Pence's current Medicaid plan.
Her firm, SVC Inc., has been paid more than $6.6 million by the state of Indiana since 2011 for her Medicaid work, according to records.
In a 2008 blog post on the website HealthAffairs, co-authored with a Daniels' administration official, Verma outlined a philosophy that "melds two themes of American society that typically collide in our health care system, rugged individualism and the Judeo Christian ethic."
Indiana's Medicaid program "combines these diametrically opposed themes by promoting personal responsibility while providing subsidized health protection to those who can least afford it," she wrote.
The nomination, if approved, would give Verma a significant voice in the policies Trump's presidential administration chooses to pursue if he makes good on a campaign promise to repeal and replace the ACA.
Under Pence, Indiana accepted federal money made available for low-income heath care under Obama's law. But the state only took the money after the Obama administration agreed to an added twist: requiring poor people to pay nominal fees for the care they receive. Those who don't keep up on monthly payments, which can be as low as $4, aren't eligible for as many services.
In most states, the poor are not required to pay such fees.
In Kentucky, where Verma consulted for Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, the state has requested federal permission to require people on the state's Medicaid plan to pay monthly premiums, have a job or volunteer for a charity to remain eligible for health benefits.
Pence has said that requiring the poor to make payments for Medicaid means they are taking personal responsibility and have "skin in the game."
But some Republicans in his home state disagreed. Republican Indiana state Rep. Ed Clere, former chairman of a health care committee in the state's General Assembly, said requirements other than fees, such as quitting smoking or taking steps to improve personal health, also demonstrate "personal responsibility" and could be more cost effective in the long run.
"In my experience there was an unwillingness to expand the conversation beyond financial participation," Clere said.
Thursday, December 1, 2016: Live streaming coverage of President-Elect Trump and VP-Elect Pence's announcement at the Carrier plant in Indianapolis. Coverage begins at 2:00 PM. EST 12/1/16
https://youtu.be/hmuGjSwxFhc
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PENCE: Farewell, thanks for enduring Hoosier spirit
Mike Pence
As my time serving as your governor comes to a close, I would like to share a few thoughts about the last four years and what we as Hoosiers have accomplished together.
I am so proud of the people of Indiana. Hoosiers are known around America for being good and kindhearted people, always willing to help each other in times of need.
But as I learned while traveling across this country, our state also has become synonymous with fiscal responsibility, innovation and a growing economy.
Together we made great strides since that January 2013 day when I took the oath of office. We lived up to our reputation and worked hard to create a state that attracts investment and jobs. With the Indiana General Assembly, we cut taxes in each of the last four years. We held the line on spending, and with balanced budgets and record reserves, Indiana became the fiscal envy of the country. We rolled back burdensome red tape and made historic investments in education, infrastructure, innovation and reform.
We set a record for private-sector employment. Today, we have more Hoosiers working than ever before in the 200-year history of this state.
Indiana’s economy added more than 165,000 new private sector jobs, and our state’s unemployment rate has been cut in half.
Because of hardworking Hoosiers and our state’s competitive business environment, we secured commitments from companies that represent more than $15 billion in capital investment creating more than 90,000 future jobs.
Because our fiscal foundation is strong, the state has been able to partner with local communities through the Regional Cities Initiative to support quality of life improvements, attracting even more talent and investment in our cities. The state investment of $126 million will yield more than $2 billion in total investments — a great value for taxpayers — and will span more than 100 projects that include the redevelopment of downtown areas and waterways.
As the Crossroads of America, Indiana made robust infrastructure investments to meet the needs of our economy. In the last four years, we committed more than $2.5 billion in new funding for roads and bridges — without raising taxes. We also secured the first ongoing, new investments for local infrastructure projects.
Our innovative Healthy Indiana Plan is a national model of how to provide affordable health-care coverage to our most vulnerable citizens. Hoosiers are proving we can improve health care and drive down costs with consumer choices and preventive care without the federal mandates, taxes and fees.
With HIP 2.0, we also made great strides expanding treatment for those who struggle in the grip of drug addiction. This year, we broke ground on Indiana’s first mental health hospital in more than a generation.
In education, while investing record amounts in K-12 public education, we set aside millions of dollars to increase pay for good teachers. I'm especially proud we made historic strides to ensure our schools work for all children, regardless of where they start in life.
We became the first state in America to make career and vocational education a priority again in every high school.
I am especially proud to have signed legislation that, for the first time ever, provides public funding for quality pre-K education for disadvantaged Hoosier children. Our pilot program is opening doors for vulnerable children across Indiana and creating a framework for future investment in early childhood education.
Our focus on education is affecting student performance in the classroom. Thanks to the hard work of our kids, parents and teachers, graduation rates and test scores improved during the past four years all across the state.
The success our state has enjoyed is a product of the work ethic and ingenuity of businesses large and small, in the city and on the farm. Credit also must go to the men and women who serve our state at every level of government.
The greatest blessing of my life is my wife Karen Pence. In her service as first lady, Hoosiers have seen her love and devotion to Indiana throughout the past four years. Karen has impacted the lives of children and families in a lasting way. Her travels across our state as bicentennial ambassador and her charitable efforts supporting organizations in all 92 counties have touched hearts and inspired Hoosiers, and I will always be proud of her service.
I was fortunate to have at my side two dedicated lieutenant governors, Sue Ellspermann and Gov.-elect Eric Holcomb, who were full partners in every success of our administration. Credit also is due to the dedicated men and women of my governor's staff, the members of my cabinet and the thousands of state employees whom I had the privilege of working alongside the last four years.
With their integrity and work ethic, these state employees personify the best of public service, and it has been my honor to serve the people of Indiana with them.
I am grateful for the stewardship of the men and women of the Indiana General Assembly, especially Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President Pro Tem David Long. These legislators enabled our state to become the fiscal envy of the country as we advanced innovative policies to improve the economy and well being of Hoosiers.
Most of all, credit belongs to you, the people of Indiana, who demanded a government as good as our people. We worked each day to fulfill the trust you placed in us.
While the work of the people will continue, I believe every Hoosier can be proud of the progress our state has made at the outset of our third century.
As my time as your governor comes to an end, I want to say thank you.
Thank you for giving me and my family the opportunity to serve the state we love.
As we prepare to assume new responsibilities in our nation's capital, we leave with grateful hearts knowing that everything we will ever do is owing entirely to the grace of God, my wonderful family and you, the good people of Indiana.
Wherever our service takes us in the promising days ahead, our hearts will always be here, where the moon shines bright upon the Wabash.
Until we come back home again, we pray God will continue to bless this great state and all who go by the name of Hoosier.
Party at Pence's: LGBT activists host dance party outside VP-elect's Chevy Chase rental
Steph Solis
A large crowd held a dance party near the Maryland home rented by Vice President-elect Mike Pence. The dance party's organizer said they were protesting Pence's policies on LGBT rights. (Jan. 19) AP
Brandishing rainbow flags and signs that read "Queer Love" and "Trans Power," scores of activists marched Wednesday night toward Vice President-elect Mike Pence's rental home in Northwest Washington, D.C.
Days before Donald Trump's administration is expected to take over the White House, activists planned what they described as the "Queer Dance Party at Mike Pence's House." They met around 6 p.m. ET outside the Friendship Heights Metro Station, where video footage showed them chanting slogans and holding LGBT pride flags as they made their way to the neighborhood where Pence and his wife, Karen, moved after the November election.
That didn't stop crowds from dancing and chanting through the liberal Democratic stronghold. Joanna Pratt, who has lived in a house across from Pence's rental since 1979, joined the dance party with her husband. She said she saw the crowd grow to at least a couple hundred of people, many carrying rainbow flags and dancing.
"We come in all shapes, sizes, colors, beliefs, and we need to respect our diversity," Pratt said. "The LGBT community has had a real struggle to be respected and be accepted, and that’s a sad statement on our country and our culture that they’ve had that struggle."
Pence, a former senator and the governor of Indiana, believes marriage should be between a man and a woman.
In 2014, the governor's chief counsel wrote in a letter that Indiana would not recognize several hundred same-sex marriages that took place after a federal judge overturned Indiana's law banning it.
Pence drew ire from the LGBT and business communities in 2015 when he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law that allowed business owners to refuse certain services that conflicted with their religious beliefs (like, let's say, a Christian baker approached by a same-sex couple looking for a wedding cake).
And, although Pence has never explicitly advocated for gay and lesbian conversion therapy, he said during the 2000 congressional campaign that public dollars should go toward the practice (It appears on his 2000 campaign website, where he also stated he would oppose any effort to give same-sex relationships equal legal status as heterosexual marriages.)
LGBT rights advocates worry about what policies Pence would promote as vice president and how they would affect the LGBT community.
When word spread that Pence rented a home near them during the transition, neighbors welcomed the vice president-elect with a series of rainbow flags. Pratt came up with the idea and was surprised to see it catch on. She's counted more than 300 rainbow flags in the neighborhood since.
"I'm personally hoping our rainbow flags will continue flying for four years," Pratt said, adding that she's seen signs crop up for Planned Parenthood and other organizations whose agendas conflict with the Trump administration's. "I hope those will all stay up as long as we are represented by an administration who does not believe in those things."
Pratt and her husband aren't the only neighbors expecting resistance to Trump over the next four years.
"They're moving to a community that's overwhelmingly and unapologetically on the side of marginalized folks," Bradley said, "and they're going to hear from us long after tonight."
https://youtu.be/V54Aoo3R4OU
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YUGE MISTAKE
http://indy.st/2k9ilsQ
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The time Gov. Pence tried to block Syrian refugees — and failed miserably
Kristine Guerra
About 4 ½ months ago, an attorney representing the administration of then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence stood in front of what amounted to a judicial firing squad.
“You are so out of it,” U.S. Appeals Court Judge Richard Posner told Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher, who was tasked with defending Pence’s decision to block aid to Syrian refugees coming to the state.
The state government already had lost the case in Indianapolis, where a federal district judge found that targeting only Syrians, but not refugees from other countries with the potential to produce terrorists, was unconstitutional and amounted to discrimination based on national origin. The state tried, unsuccessfully, to overturn the ruling.
During a hearing in September on the appeal, two judges seemed more than critical of the government’s arguments. Posner and Judge Frank Easterbrook, both of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago, fired barbs, at times sarcastically, at Fisher who argued — over and over, but not to the judges’ satisfaction — that the governor’s decision was a response to FBI Director James B. Comey’s testimony before Congress that there were “certain gaps” in intelligence about refugees coming from Syria.
“You don’t think there are dangerous people from Libya, from Egypt, from Saudi Arabia, from Yemen, from Greece and France and Germany, which have had terrorist attacks?” Posner asked.
Indiana’s new governor has dealt another blow to his predecessor’s efforts to keep Syrian refugees from coming to the state. Gov. Eric Holcomb ®, who was hand-picked by Pence to succeed him when he became vice president, said in October that he will continue to allow refugees to “find a safe haven” in Indiana, the Indianapolis Star reported.
[Trump says ‘all is going well’ on immigration order amid questions and confusion]
Critics say the legal battle in Indiana over Syrian refugees and President Trump’s executive order barring migrants and refugees from seven predominantly Muslim nations from coming to the country appear to have a common theme — painting an entire citizenry with the same brush. That’s contrary to legal principle, said David Orentlicher, a constitutional law professor at Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
“In terms of the principles of our laws, it’s the idea that you be judged as an individual,” said Orentlicher, a Democrat and a former member of the Indiana House. “You know, not because you’re part of a group. … To treat Syrians and Iraqis and Iranians the same is inconsistent with our principle, that we judge your guilt or innocence based on yourself, what you’ve done, not what others have done.”
Legal experts, however, say that the legal challenge Pence faced in Indiana was fundamentally different from what his new boss is likely to encounter as a result of the executive action — perhaps Trump’s most controversial directive so far.
Pence’s decision in Indiana, while also controversial, brought national attention to his conservative state. In an editorial published in the Star in November 2015, Pence defended his decision, saying his “highest duty and first responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of the people of our state.” But his actions were far more limited than Trump’s and did not appear to be an outright ban on refugees. Rather, his administration withheld money to prevent local agencies from resettling Syrian refugees who have already gone through a federal screening process.
The Indiana case also is unlikely to serve as a blueprint for how constitutional challenges to Trump’s order will play out in court, legal experts say. For one thing, federal law governs immigration and refugee issues, and state governments can’t interfere.
As president, Trump has broad authority over implementing immigration policies. The federal government has more discretion to make distinctions based on countries of origin than states do, said Richard Primus, a constitutional law professor for the University of Michigan.
President Trump signed an executive order halting all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days, among other provisions. Here's what the order says. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
President Trump signed an executive order halting all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days, among other provisions. Here's what the order says. President Trump signed an executive order halting all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days, among other provisions. Here's what the order says. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
Trump’s unprecedented executive action applies to migrants and U.S. legal residents from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Green-card and visa holders who happened to be en route to the United States when the order was signed were detained at airports over the weekend as administration officials implemented Trump’s directive. Confusion remains over how expansive the order is. On Sunday, Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that green-card holders are not affected, contradicting what government officials had said earlier.
Parts of Trump’s executive action had already been put on hold by federal judges in New York, California, Virginia, Seattle and Boston. Scholars told The Washington Post’s Michael Kranish and Robert Barnes that the Trump administration is likely to face more legal challenges, including the argument that the president’s decision discriminates based on national origin.
In Indiana, U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt found that Pence discriminated by halting aid for Syrian refugees who had already passed screening by the federal government. She also wrote in her ruling last February that withholding funds meant to provide social services for refugees “in no way directly, or even directly, promotes the safety of Indiana citizens,” the Star reported.
“Why all Syrian refugees? Why does Indiana have a blanket screen?” Pratt asked Fisher during an earlier hearing, the Star reported.
The appeals court judges in Chicago heard the case several months after Pratt’s ruling. The heated exchange between Fisher and the two judges, Posner and Easterbrook, lasted for nearly 20 minutes.
While Fisher was arguing that discrimination “is not at play,” Easterbrook chuckled.
“When a state makes an argument that’s saying we’re differentiating according to whether somebody is from Syria, but that has nothing to do with national origin, all it produces is a broad smile,” he said.
Fisher kept repeating one main point — that Pence was relying on statements by Comey about the lack of information about refugees coming from Syria, and that no similar statements were made about people from other war-torn countries.
[Trump and his aides keep justifying the entry ban by citing attacks it couldn’t have prevented]
At one point, Posner asked if Syrians are the only Muslims whom Indiana fears.
“This has nothing to do with religion,” Fisher explained. “This has to do with what’s going on in Syria.”
“Oh, of course it does,” Posner snapped back.
“Oh, I object to that, your honor,” Fisher said.
“Look, if you look at the attacks, the terrorist attacks on the United States, 9/11, attacks in New York, Boston, San Bernardino, they’re all by Muslims. ISIS is Muslim. Al-Qaeda was Muslim. You understand that, don’t you?” Posner asked.
Posner, a Ronald Reagan appointee known for his forthright remarks, asked repeatedly why Indiana “singled out Syrians.” And, repeatedly, Fisher answered by going back to what Comey said about Syrian refugees.
“Look, I asked you whether the FBI director has said the United States is perfectly secure against foreign terrorists unless they’re from Syria,” Posner said.
“No, of course not,” Fisher responded.
[Jihadist groups hail Trump’s travel ban as a victory]
The rest of the oral argument was continuing the cycle of the same question and the same answer. After several back-and-forth jabs, Posner said, “Honestly, you are so out of it.”
In an opinion denying the appeal, Posner called the state’s case “a nightmare speculation.”
“The governor of Indiana believes, though without evidence, that some of these people were sent to Syria by ISIS to engage in terrorism and now wish to infiltrate the United States to commit terrorist acts here,” he wrote.
Posner’s words reflect some of the same criticisms and questions faced by the Trump administration.
“That is something that worries the Supreme Court when you take this kind of action that really interferes with people’s lives,” Orentlicher said. “They want the policy to be well-tailored to the problem. It should fit the problem well. That’s a very important consideration for the court, if it decides that there are rights that can be asserted.”
None of the terrorists responsible for fatal attacks on the United States in the past 15 years came from the countries identified by Trump’s order. For instance, 15 of the 19 attackers believed to have been involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were from Saudi Arabia. Others were born in Egypt, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and the United States.
Trump defended the order in a statement Saturday, saying it has nothing to do with religion and does not constitute a Muslim ban. The countries he named have been previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terrorism.
During the presidential campaign in December 2015, Trump called for a “total and complete” ban on Muslims entering the United States. Pence, who at that time was not yet Trump’s vice presidential pick, said in a tweet that banning Muslims is “offensive and unconstitutional.”
Looks like Pence played his role for DeVos today.
Vice President Mike Pence leaves Colts-49ers game after players reportedly KNEEL
Fox News
Vice President Mike Pence spoke out on Sunday about why he left a football game between the Indianapolis Colts and San Francisco 49ers, the same day it emerged that former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick reportedly is planning on standing for the national anthem if given a chance to play football in the NFL again.
"I left today's Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem," Pence tweeted
I left today's Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem.
— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017
Several 49ers players reportedly kneeled for the anthem on Sunday in Indianapolis.
At a time when so many Americans are inspiring our nation with their courage, resolve, and resilience...
— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017
...now, more than ever, we should rally around our Flag and everything that unites us...
— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017
While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I don't think it's too much to ask NFL players to respect the Flag and our National Anthem
— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017
Pence later posted a statement which read, "I left today's Colts game because President Trump and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem. At a time when so many Americans are inspiring our nation with their courage, resolve, and resilience, now, more than ever, we should rally around our Flag and everything that unites us."
I stand with @POTUS Trump, I stand with our soldiers, and I will always stand for our Flag and our National Anthem. pic.twitter.com/B0zP5M41MQ
— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017
"While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I don't think it's too much to ask NFL players to respect the Flag and our National Anthem," he continued. "I stand with President Trump, I stand with our soldiers, and I will always stand for our Flag and National Anthem."
We were proud to stand - with all our @Colts - for our soldiers, our flag, and our National Anthem 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/mkZiKMkPDD
— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017
While a quarterback for the 49ers, Kaepernick sat or kneeled during the national anthem last season to bring more attention to the killings of black men by police officers.
The protests spread this season after the former San Francisco 49er was unable to sign on with another team.
According to a report by CBS' Jason La Canfora on Sunday, Kaepernick has been living in New York and working out privately in New Jersey with the hope of signing with a team this season.
After sitting down with Colin Kaepernick for several hours, @JasonLaCanfora says the QB is still actively trying to play in the NFL. pic.twitter.com/R9qTIZ7EQl
— NFLonCBS (@NFLonCBS) October 8, 2017
"After sitting down with Colin Kaepernick for several hours, @JasonLaCanfora says the QB is still actively trying to play in the NFL," NFLonCBS tweeted Sunday, including a video.
"He's not planning on kneeling, he's going to donate all his jersey sales, and he's planning on standing for the anthem, if given the opportunity," La Canfora said in the video segment.
La Canfora posted a series of tweets Sunday about Kaepernick.
"Wanted to clarify one thing regarding @Kaepernick7. When I was asked about his whether or not he would sit or stand for anthem ..." he wrote.
Wanted to clarify one thing regarding @Kaepernick7. When I was asked about his whether or not he would sit or stand for anthem ...
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) October 8, 2017
"Standing for Anthem wasn't something that I spoke to Colin about sat," he added. "I relayed what had been reported about him standing in the future..."
Standing for Anthem wasn't something that I spoke to Colin about sat. I relayed what had been reported about him standing in the future...
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) October 8, 2017
"Reports about @Kaepernick7 standing for anthem had not been refuted," La Canfora wrote. "However, I cant say if they are true or not. Colin and I didn't discuss."
Reports about @Kaepernick7 standing for anthem had not been refuted. However, I cant say if they are true or not. Colin and I didn't discuss
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) October 8, 2017
In another message, La Canfora said, "Colin would have to address any future demonstrations. I didn't ask him if he would sit or stand. Our chat primarily about his will to play."
Colin would have to address any future demonstrations. I didn't ask him if he would sit or stand. Our chat primarily about his will to play
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) October 8, 2017
"I know @Kaepernick7 is fully committed to playing football and helping those in need. What he would do during the Anthem I do not know," he wrote.
I know @Kaepernick7 is fully committed to playing football and helping those in need. What he would do during the Anthem I do not know
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) October 8, 2017
The Associated Press contributed to this report, which is developing.
Pastor denounces Donald Trump, with Mike Pence in the congregation
The pastor at the church the vice-president attended in Maryland on Sunday said using the word ‘shithole’ was ‘dehumanizing’ and ‘ugly’
Guardian staff and agencies
Mon 15 Jan 2018 16.44 EST Last modified on Tue 16 Jan 2018 05.39 EST
A Maryland pastor denounced President Donald Trump’s alleged vulgar description of African nations from the pulpit on Sunday – while Vice-President Mike Pence was sitting in the pews of his church.
Maurice Watson, pastor of Metropolitan Baptist church in Largo, said remarks in which Trump reportedly used the word “shithole” to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African nations were “dehumanizing” and “ugly”.
WUSA-TV reported that Pence became red-faced at times during the sermon. In an email to the Associated Press on Monday, Pence’s office denied that.
Trump has denied using the word during an immigration discussion with congressional leaders in the Oval Office. On Sunday night he claimed to be “the least racist person”.
A Democratic senator who was in the room described Trump’s choice of words. Two Republicans who also attended the meeting contested that version of events.
The Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, told reporters on Monday: “I know what happened. I stand behind every word that I said.”
Trump tweeted: “Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals can’t get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.”
In his sermon on Sunday, Watson said “whoever made such a statement” was wrong and should be held accountable, and said he had felt “led by God” to speak up. Many of his congregants come from African nations, he said.
Worshippers stood and applauded.
Update: Mike Pence Denies Requesting a Meeting With Openly Gay Olympic Figure Skater Adam Rippon
Controversy between the vice president and the U.S. Olympian started last month.
by HILARY WEAVER
FEBRUARY 7, 2018 2:58 PM
Update, 9:06 p.m.: In a statement sent Wednesday evening, Vice President Pence’s office called the report from USA Today false. It continues “The Vice President’s office did not reach out to set up a conversation with Mr. Rippon. As we’ve said before, the Vice President is supporting all the U.S. athletes in the Olympics and is hoping they all win medals.”
The original story continues below.
Mike Pence is headed to South Korea, where he will attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics and lead the official U.S. delegation on Friday. As part of his trip, Pence also requested a one-on-one chat with openly gay U.S. men’s figure skater Adam Rippon, who, per sources for USA Today, turned him down.
Pence presumably wanted to meet with the figure skater because of an interview Rippon gave last month, when USA Today Sports’ Christine Brennan asked him how he felt about the news that Pence would be leading the delegation.
“You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy?” the 28-year-old said. “I’m not buying it.” Rippon added that, should he be able to attend, he would prefer not to meet Pence in the traditional meet-and-greet between the official delegation and the U.S. athletes.
Pence was reportedly upset by Rippon’s comments. His press secretary, Alyssa Farah, sent Brennan the following message: “The vice president is proud to lead the U.S. delegation to the Olympics and support America’s incredible athletes. This accusation is totally false and has no basis in fact. Despite these misinformed claims, the vice president will be enthusiastically supporting all the U.S. athletes competing next month in Pyeongchang.”
Rippon told Brennan in January that he would not consider meeting with Pence before his events, but might do so when he is finished on the ice.
“If it were before my event, I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they aren’t a friend of a gay person but that they think that they’re sick,” Rippon said. “I wouldn’t go out of my way to meet somebody like that.”
He added then: “If I had the chance to meet him afterwards, after I’m finished competing, there might be a possibility to have an open conversation. He seems more mild-mannered than Donald Trump . . . But I don’t think the current administration represents the values that I was taught growing up. Mike Pence doesn’t stand for anything that I really believe in.”
Pence’s alleged support for conversion therapy dates back to a statement on the Web site for his 2000 congressional campaign, in which he advocated for “institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.” Pence, who has been vocal in opposing L.G.B.T. rights, has said very little himself about conversion therapy beyond that vaguely worded statement; the debate about what the statement actually meant is divided enough that PolitiFact rates Pence’s alleged belief in conversion therapy as “half true.”
McCain's inner circle planning on having Pence, not Trump, at funeral: report
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 05/05/18
Those close to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have told the White House that their plan for the Arizona Republican's eventual funeral is to have Vice President Pence attend — but not President Trump, The New York Times reports.
The funeral is expected to take place at the Washington National Cathedral, according to the Times.
But Trump, with whom McCain has had a tempestuous relationship, is not expected to attend the service, at least not according to current planning, the Times reported.
McCain was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer last year, and is undergoing treatment. Despite his illness, the senator has continued to visit with friends and field conference calls with his staff back in Washington.
Still, some of his associates have said that they want a "McCain person" appointed to fill his Senate seat in the event of the senator's death, according to the Times. Among the list of potential picks is McCain's wife, Cindy McCain.
McCain has also acknowledged that his upcoming memoir, "The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations," will be his last book.
That title, set to be released this month, reflects on his 2008 presidential campaign and the years that followed. It also includes an admission by the senator that he regrets not choosing former Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat turned independent, to serve as his running mate.
In his book and an upcoming HBO documentary, McCain says that his decision not to pick Lieberman, his longtime friend, was "another mistake that I made." McCain instead chose former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin ® as his running mate.
He also recalls how his campaign advisers argued that picking Lieberman as his running mate would divide the Republican Party because of his political affiliations, according to the Times, which obtained a copy of the book.
"It was sound advice that I could reason for myself," McCain writes. "But my gut told me to ignore it and I wish I had."
Trump is no longer the worst person in government
By George F. Will
Donald Trump, with his feral cunning, knew. The oleaginous Mike Pence, with his talent for toadyism and appetite for obsequiousness, could, Trump knew, become America’s most repulsive public figure. And Pence, who has reached this pinnacle by dethroning his benefactor, is augmenting the public stock of useful knowledge. Because his is the authentic voice of today’s lickspittle Republican Party, he clarifies this year’s elections: Vote Republican to ratify groveling as governing.
Last June, a Trump Cabinet meeting featured testimonials offered to Dear Leader by his forelock-tugging colleagues. His chief of staff, Reince Priebus, caught the spirit of the worship service by thanking Trump for the “blessing” of being allowed to serve him. The hosannas poured forth from around the table, unredeemed by even a scintilla of insincerity. Priebus was soon deprived of his blessing, as was Tom Price. Before Price’s ecstasy of public service was truncated because of his incontinent enthusiasm for charter flights, he was the secretary of health and human services who at the Cabinet meeting said, “I can’t thank you enough for the privileges you’ve given me.” The vice president chimed in but saved his best riff for a December Cabinet meeting when, as The Post’s Aaron Blake calculated, Pence praised Trump once every 12?seconds for three minutes: “I’m deeply humbled. .?.?. ” Judging by the number of times Pence announces himself “humbled,” he might seem proud of his humility, but that is impossible because he is conspicuously devout and pride is a sin.
Between those two Cabinet meetings, Pence and his retinue flew to Indiana for the purpose of walking out of an Indianapolis Colts football game, thereby demonstrating that football players kneeling during the national anthem are intolerable to someone of Pence’s refined sense of right and wrong. Which brings us to his Arizona salute last week to Joe Arpaio, who was sheriff of Maricopa County until in 2016 voters wearied of his act.
[Jennifer Rubin: This is why Pence’s sickening embrace of Arpaio is so important]
Noting that Arpaio was in his Tempe audience, Pence, oozing unctuousness from every pore, called Arpaio “another favorite,” professed himself “honored” by Arpaio’s presence, and praised him as “a tireless champion of .?.?. the rule of law.” Arpaio, a grandstanding, camera-chasing bully and darling of the thuggish right, is also a criminal, convicted of contempt of court for ignoring a federal judge’s order to desist from certain illegal law enforcement practices. Pence’s performance occurred eight miles from the home of Sen. John McCain, who could teach Pence — or perhaps not — something about honor.
Henry Adams said that “practical politics consists in ignoring facts,” but what was the practicality in Pence’s disregard of the facts about Arpaio? His pandering had no purpose beyond serving Pence’s vocation, which is to ingratiate himself with his audience of the moment. The audience for his praise of Arpaio was given to chanting “Build that wall!” and applauded Arpaio, who wears Trump’s pardon like a boutonniere.
Hoosiers, of whom Pence is one, sometimes say that although Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky and flourished in Illinois, he spent his formative years — December 1816 to March 1830 — in Indiana, which he left at age 21. Be that as it may, on Jan. 27, 1838, Lincoln, then 28, delivered his first great speech, to the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield. Less than three months earlier, Elijah Lovejoy, an abolitionist newspaper editor in Alton, Ill., 67 miles from Springfield, was murdered by a pro-slavery mob. Without mentioning Lovejoy — it would have been unnecessary — Lincoln lamented that throughout America, “so lately famed for love of law and order,” there was a “mobocratic spirit” among “the vicious portion of [the] population.” So, “let reverence for the laws .?.?. become the political religion of the nation.” Pence, one of evangelical Christians’ favorite pin-ups, genuflects at various altars, as the mobocratic spirit and the vicious portion require.
It is said that one cannot blame people who applaud Arpaio and support his rehabilitators (Trump, Pence, et al.), because, well, globalization or health-care costs or something. Actually, one must either blame them or condescend to them as lacking moral agency. Republicans silent about Pence have no such excuse.
There will be negligible legislating by the next Congress, so ballots cast this November will be most important as validations or repudiations of the harmonizing voices of Trump, Pence, Arpaio and the like. Trump is what he is, a floundering, inarticulate jumble of gnawing insecurities and not-at-all compensating vanities, which is pathetic. Pence is what he has chosen to be, which is horrifying.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/14/mike-pence-lgbtq-dance-party-columbus-ohio
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https://www.mediaite.com/trump/breaking-trumps-shocking-comments-that-pence-deserved-to-be-hanged-on-jan-6-revealed-at-hearing/
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https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/january-6-hearings-july-12/h_8ce42be9db3fe22355532d7bdf325ca4
Poor Pence. America's greatest loyal VP, only in the end.....to get thrown under the bus by Donald Trump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AAyKAoPFQs
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https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/mike-pence-running-for-president-2024-why.html
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Pence is a fool to run in this election.
For four years he was basically Trump's VP houseboy. In the end as everyone knows, Trump contemptuously threw him under the bus.
‘Traitor’: Trump supporters harangue Pence in New Hampshire[size=4]
By Andrew Zhang 08/05/2023
Former Vice President Mike Pence defended certifying the 2020 election for Joe Biden in response to jeers and insults from a crowd of Donald Trump supporters outside a campaign event in New Hampshire.
“Why’d you sell out the people?” a man called out as Pence arrived for a town hall in Londonderry on Friday evening. “Why didn’t you uphold the Constitution?”
“I upheld the Constitution,” Pence said in response. “Read it.”
Protesters in the group were wearing MAGA gear and holding pro-Trump signs, according to footage from ABC News and NBC News.
Pence certified the presidential election results for Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021 — a ceremonial duty that preceded the riot at the Capitol and made him the target of the Republican base’s most ardent Trump supporters.
As such, Pence has struggled to gain solid ground in the GOP presidential primary. He has not yet qualified for the August GOP debate: Pence raised just $3.8 million in the second quarter of the year, and he typically polls in the single digits in national and early primary state surveys.
At an NRA convention in April, members of the audience booed Pence from the moment he started speaking. He also had a contentious exchange with Tucker Carlson at a candidate forum in mid-July.
Pence has continued to temper his criticism of Trump’s base to not alienate any potential support.
“There is a lot of passion out there. I reject your suggestion that that passion is translated into the violence and the vandalism of that day,” Pence later said, referring to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. “I know the people of this movement — whether they support me or not — are the best people in this country.”
On Tuesday, the former president was indicted over charges that he conspired against the U.S. when attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Pence has indicated that he plans to use the indictment as a line of contrast in the campaign.
“Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States,” the former vice president said in a statement on Tuesday following the news.
Trump also faces federal charges for mishandling classified documents and state charges in connection to alleged hush money payments to a porn star. On Saturday, Pence emphasized the gravity of mishandling classified materials at a national security event in New Hampshire, though he neither mentioned the former president by name nor discussed Trump’s classified documents indictment.
“We’ve got to be deadly serious about handling classified materials in this country,” Pence said, before referencing his own “inadvertent” mishandling of documents found in his Indiana home early this year.
“I owned up to it,” the former vice president said.
Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing contributed to this report.
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