Former vice president Mike Pence speaks at an event sponsored by the Palmetto Family organization on 29 April 2021 in Columbia, South Carolina. The address was his first since the end of his vice presidency. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Former vice president Mike Pence vowed in his first speech since leaving office to “push back” on the “far-left agenda” that he believes is wrong for America.
Pence spoke at an event for the Palmetto Family Council – a far-right, anti-LGBT+ conservative Christian organisation – in South Carolina on Thursday (29 April). In his first public appearance since leaving the White House, the former vice president slammed president Biden and his “avalanche of liberal policies”. He said the Biden administration was pushing the “far-left agenda” while praising his administration with the former president, Donald Trump.
“In just 100 days, the Biden-Harris administration has launched an avalanche of liberal policies that threaten to derail all the progress that we made for a safer, more prosperous, more secure America,” Pence said.
Our agenda is clear. It’s the agenda implemented in the Trump-Pence Administration, built on a strong national defense, secure borders, free-market economics, America first trade deals, Conservative judges & upholding all of the God-given liberties enshrined in the Constitution. pic.twitter.com/w3bAalJJwx — Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) April 30, 2021
He argued that his time working with Trump was the “greatest honour of my life”, and it was “four years of consequence”, “results” and “promises made and promises kept”.
In contrast, Mike Pence said the Biden administration had been “cancelling our most cherished liberties” and that he’d “had enough”. He said it was time for Americans to “stand up and unite behind a positive agenda and win back America”.
“The time has come for freedom-loving Americans to stand up to the far-left agenda of the Biden-Harris administration and say enough is enough,” Pence said. “It’s time to unite behind a positive agenda built upon our highest ideals and win back America.”
He also said the “movement” will “reject critical race theory” in publicly-funded education institutions, and it will “cancel cancel culture wherever it arises”. Pence also said that he planned to use the coming months to push “back on the liberal agenda” that he says is wrong for the country.
It is widely believed that Pence might be setting the stage to run in the 2024 election. Republicans have said the former vice president would be a “strong contender” for a presidential nomination.
In April, he launched a political group called Advancing American Freedom to promote “traditional conservative values” and the “successful policies of the Trump administration”. He said conservatives would not “stand idly by as the radical left”. The group includes other high-profile Republican political and policy advisors including Kellyanne Conway, Newt and Callista Gringrich and Larry Kudlow.
Pence has been shoring up ties with other far-right conservatives. He announced that he would be forging a partnership with the anti-LGBT+ think tank Heritage Foundation. Pence joined as a distinguished visiting fellow to help advise Heritage experts on public policy issues and ensure the organisation “remains the leading conservative voice on solutions to America’s biggest challenges”.
Mike Pence might have to challenge his ex-boss Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in the 2024 election. Trump said in April that he is “beyond seriously” considering another run for the Oval Office because he misses “helping people”.
A few days later, he confirmed that he “100 per cent” was thinking about running again. Trump said he would “certainly consider” his “friend” and viciously anti-LGBT+ Florida governor Ron DeSantis as his running mate. He believed the pair would be “very successful” if they managed to get the nomination.
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