Mike Pence news – live: At CNN town hall Pence says he won’t pardon Jan 6 protesters who called for his death

Oliver O'Connell

Former vice president Mike Pence officially announced that he is running for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election, putting him up against former president Donald Trump.

In a speech in Iowa, Mr Pence trod a fine line between embracing the record of the Trump administration and attacking the former president for his role in the January 6 Capitol riot.

In a CNN town hall on Wednesday evening, Mr Pence reaffirmed his conservative culture war credentials on abortion, gun rights, crime, school choice, social security, and climate change.

When asked about his former boss, he called on the Department of Justice to not prosecute Mr Trump for his handling of classified documents, immediately after saying everyone should be treated equally under the law. He refused to say he would pardon the former president if he won the White House.

In an increasingly crowded GOP field, Mr Pence faces competition from fellow ex-Trump administration figures, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

He is the first vice president in modern US history to run against his former running mate.

Key points

Pence accuses Trump of treating abortion issue as an ‘inconvenience’

11:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Former Vice President Mike Pence said he plans to make the expansion of abortion bans a central plank of his 2024 campaign as he launched his bid for the GOP nomination on Wednesday.

John Bowden reports.

Pence accuses Trump of treating abortion issue as an ‘inconvenience’

How Pence got here

09:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Joe Sommerlad looks at the how the former vice president ended up running against his former boss.

Pence suffered the wrath of Trump. Now he wants his old boss’s job in 2024

Pence announces 2024 run with video calling for ‘different leadership’

08:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Former vice president Mike Pence on Wednesday announced that he is entering the running for the 2024 presidential election, setting up a heated competition for the Republican nomination with former president Donald Trump.

In a launch video for his campaign, Mr Pence said a “different leadership” could turn the country around to prevent the American dream from being “crushed”.

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar reports.

Mike Pence announces 2024 run with video calling for ‘different leadership’

Who is attracting the Southern Baptist vote?

06:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Southern Baptists form a core part of the white evangelical Christian bloc that has reliably and overwhelmingly voted Republican in recent elections, and is expected to again in 2024.

But Southern Baptists are weighing their options in the GOP presidential primary field — some already lining up behind Donald Trump, others wary of the former president, whom most evangelical voters supported in previous elections despite his vulgar language, serial marriages and sexual bravado. Some are looking at what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or other candidates might offer.

But even critics of many Baptist voters’ embrace of hard-right politics have little doubt where this is headed in November 2024 — support for whichever candidate emerges from the GOP nomination process. The only question is the extent of the fervor they bring to the polls.

Read more...

For many Southern Baptists, the only campaign question is which Republican candidate to support

05:45 , Oliver O'Connell

04:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Mike Pence launches 2024 presidential campaign in Iowa

04:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Voices: Mike Pence isn’t even a contender for 2024. Why are we pretending?

03:42 , Oliver O'Connell

Eric Garcia writes:

But Mr Pence likely sealed his fate as a presidential candidate not when he filed the paperwork to become a contender this month, but on January 6, when he made the correct decision to break from Mr Trump and his advisers’ cockamamie scheme to overturn the election. Mr Pence mentioned this during his announcement speech, excoriating the president for inciting the mob that wanted to lynch him and putting American democracy in peril.

Read more...

Mike Pence isn’t even a contender for 2024. Why are we pretending?

03:37 , Oliver O'Connell

Ending on a question about how to unite the country as Biden promised he would do, Pence talks about his relationship with civil rights legend John Lewis, who passed away in 2020.

03:31 , Oliver O'Connell

Bash asks Pence how he can both pledge to support the eventual nominee whomever it is while saying that someone who puts themself above the Constitution — as Pence says Trump did on January 6 — can never be president again.

He doesn’t give a precise answer but says he hopes Trump comes around to understanding he was wrong.

Bash pushes Pence on what he would do if Trump is the nominee.

Pence says there is an excellent field of candidates including him and he does not believe Trump will be the nominee, adding that he hopes that it is him.

03:27 , Oliver O'Connell

Pence is asked by an audience member how he would attract diehard Trump supporters and said he believes the two people who would unite the Republican party are Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

He says whoever the party’s standard bearer is at the end of the primaries would be enough to attract voters who have suffered economically under the Biden administration.

03:19 , Oliver O'Connell

Remaining on gun rights and school shootings, Bash notes that most mass shooters intend to die when they commit these atrocities and questions how much of a deterrent the death penalty would be.

Pence doubles down on his answer saying he believes in the force of the law.

03:16 , Oliver O'Connell

Another audience question, this time on crime in major cities.

Pence says he will not defund the police and says his “heart breaks for Chicago” (where his parents are from) and he wants to get serious about violent crime and give the police and cities what they need.

Bash challenges him on Chicago and points out that half of the guns recovered in the city come from his home state of Indiana.

This leads to a response about mass shootings in which he vows to protect the second amendment but also adds that anyone who commits a mass shooting should face the death penalty within 18 months.

He later adds that every school in America should have trained armed guards.

Bash counters that such guards have not always worked. Pence says he emphasises training these guards.

He adds that institutional mental healthcare is also vital and references the Parkland shooter whose mother asked multiple times for help before he committed the mass shooting for which he is now in jail for life.

03:08 , Oliver O'Connell

Pence is asked by an audience member about how Americans have lost faith in government institutions such as the CDC and FBI.

He replies that people are policy and he has the right relationships in Washington and at the state level to assemble a team they would be proud of to address the problem.

03:06 , Oliver O'Connell

The next topic brought up by an audience member (the second Republican woman who voted for Joe Biden) is social security.

Pence jokes that he is more interested as he turned 64 today.

He argues that social security is in desperate need of reform and neither Trump nor Biden want to touch it.

Asked if he would raise the retirement age as one fix to stop social security from going bankrupt, he says that when Americans have been confronted with hard realities in the past they have risen to the occasion.

03:01 , Oliver O'Connell

After another break, Bash references the toxic air across the northeast from wildfires in Canada and asks if the climate crisis will be a priority.

Pence says the weather is changing but he wants to focus on American innovation to tackle such disasters.

He refers to radical environmentalists and their beliefs.

02:55 , Oliver O'Connell

Moving on to education, Pence spends much of his initial answer praising Karen Pence before pivoting to school choice for parents and then on to the transgender treatment of children saying he is against — no matter what the parents believe.

Bash pushes back asking why he is so much for parents’ rights except on this issue. He says he is convinced it is an exception because it is setting them on a course from which they cannot turn back.

Pushed further he says adults can live how they want and get such treatment but there is a cut-off for those above the age of 18 for a reason and transgender children who want treatment should wait.

02:47 , Oliver O'Connell

Another audience question, this time concerning immigration.

Pence says his religious beliefs include compassion and he believes that should be the centre of the immigration debate. He goes on to talk about how America once had a guestworker program and that could be one way of approaching some of the current problems.

He also talks about the cartels and the need to approach the problems from both sides of the southern border.

Pence says he would not reinstate the family separation program (which Trump would not confirm) and goes on to say that the the country cannot keep trying to address immigration with bandaids and small fixes.

02:43 , Oliver O'Connell

After a short break, Pence is asked about his conversion from Catholicism to Evangelicalism during college. There is a brief light-hearted moment before he calls out the Dodgers for their Pride event and the inclusion of what he calls religious bigotry — the irreverent order of drag nuns called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

He reiterates he is a Christian, a Conservative, and a Republican in that order.

Here’s what you need to know about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence:

‘A second job covered in glitter’: Meet the LGBT+ drag nuns who beat the LA Dodgers

Pence calls on DoJ not to indict Trump

02:34 , Oliver O'Connell

Mike Pence has called on the Justice Department to not prosecute Donald Trump for his handling of classified documents but refused to say he would pardon the former president if he won the White House.

The former vice president told a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, that he viewed the handling of classified material as “a very serious matter” but told host Dana Bash that federal prosecutors should leave Mr Trump alone.

“I would hope not, I really would,” he said when asked if the DoJ special counsel Jack Smith should indict Mr Trump over the documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

“I think it would be terribly divisive to the country at a time when the American people are hurting.”

Graeme Massie reports.

Pence calls on DoJ not to indict Trump but stops short of saying he’d pardon him

02:31 , Oliver O'Connell

Asked about Donald Trump’s comments on Ukraine, Pence says: “Frankly, when Vladimir Putin rolled into Ukraine, the former president called him a genius. I know the difference between a genius and a war criminal. And I know who needs to win in the war in Ukraine, and it’s the people fighting for their freedom.”

Watch:

02:30 , Oliver O'Connell

The next question from the audience is about Pence’s stance on Ukraine.

“Look, I know that some in this debate have called the war in Ukraine a territorial dispute. It’s not. It was a Russian invasion, an unprovoked Russian invasion.”

He goes on to say that America is the centre of the free world and it is in the US’s national interest to help Ukraine.

Stopping Russian aggression is key he says and that will send a message to China too.

02:27 , Oliver O'Connell

Moving on to the issue of abortion in another question from the audience, Pence says he will not rest until he restores the sanctity of life into law in every state.

“I’m pro-life and I don't apologize for it,” Pence said.

“All my time in Congress, I stood for the right the life. I authored the first legislation to defund Planned Parenthood,” he added to applause.

He goes on to say that if we stand for life we need to stand for helping mothers and children too citing recent legislation in Texas.

“I believe that if you’re going to be pro-life you need to be pro-adoption,” Pence said.

02:22 , Oliver O'Connell

The next question from the audience concerns inflation and what Pence would do to keep prices down. He turns the question toward spending.

Follow-up questioning from Bash regards Covid pandemic spending which is regarded to have partly led to inflation. He says he is proud of what Americans did in the pandemic but is will to learn.

02:18 , Oliver O'Connell

Meanwhile, fellow Republican candidate Asa Hutchinson chips in:

02:17 , Oliver O'Connell

Asked if he would pardon a convicted Donald Trump if he is elected president, Pence demurs and says: “I don’t want to speak about hypotheticals I am not sure I am going to be elected president of the US but I believe we have a fighting chance”

02:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Regarding the classified documents against Donald Trump, Pence, on the news that Trump got a target letter from the Department of Justice says the “handling of classified materials is a very serious matter” but then goes on to suggest that his former boss shouldn’t be indicted because it could fuel division here in the US and would “send a terrible message to the wider world”.

Watch: Pence on Jan 6 defendants

02:13 , Oliver O'Connell

02:11 , Oliver O'Connell

Pence says he has no interest in pardoning those who called for his death during the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021.

"I have no interest and no intention of pardoning those who assaulted police officers or vandalised our Capitol."

He adds that it can never be allowed to happen again.

02:10 , Oliver O'Connell

The first question from the audience is whether Mr Pence would push back against Mr Trump on the idea that he could have changed the outcome of the 2020 election.

Pence referred the member of the public to his speech earlier and confirmed he would push explaining that while he thought there were irregularities in the election, the states certified the election and once that was done his role was simply ceremonial.

He invokes the Bible in his answer.

02:07 , Oliver O'Connell

The first question is why is he running for president.

Bash asks about the line in his kick-off speech regarding January 6.

He said earlier: “President Trump also demanded I choose between him and our Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice. Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president again.”

He reiterates that it was a difficult day and he hoped President Trump would come round to understand the issues but he did not. Pence says he chose the Constitution and that is the most important role of the president.

CNN town hall gets underway

02:03 , Oliver O'Connell

Mike Pence takes the stage in Des Moines after an introduction from Dana Bash.

As he sits she wishes him a happy birthday. He thanks her and says: “It’s one for the books.”

CNN town hall to begin soon

01:52 , Oliver O'Connell

Former Vice President Mike Pence is set to field questions from Iowa voters in a CNN town hall at 9pm ET.

The event will be moderated by CNN’s Dana Bash and is being held at Grand View University in Des Moines.

The audience is made up of Iowa Republicans and people who say they intend to pre-register to take part in Republican Iowa caucuses.

Something to watch tonight is whether Mr Pence goes after any of the other candidates other than Donald Trump.

Earlier: Pence accuses Trump of treating abortion issue as an ‘inconvenience’

01:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Former Vice President Mike Pence said he plans to make the expansion of abortion bans a central plank of his 2024 campaign as he launched his bid for the GOP nomination on Wednesday.

John Bowden reports.

Pence accuses Trump of treating abortion issue as an ‘inconvenience’

What did Pence say in his 2024 campaign launch speech?

01:35 , Oliver O'Connell

January 6

“The American people deserve to know on that fateful day, President Trump also demanded I choose between him and our Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice,” Mr Pence said. “Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president again.

Divisive politics

“Most Americans treat each other with kindness and respect – even when we disagree,” he said. “It’s not too much to ask our leaders to do the same.”

Abortion

“After leading the most pro-life administration in American history, Donald Trump and others in this race are retreating from the cause of the unborn,” Mr Pence said. “The sanctity of life has been our party’s calling for half a century — long before Donald Trump was ever a part of it. Now he treats it as an inconvenience, even blaming election losses on overturning Roe v Wade.”

Ukraine

“President Trump, he described Vladimir Putin as a genius, at the outset of the invasion and another candidate for the Republican nomination described the invasion of Ukraine as a quote, territorial dispute. A year ago Karen and I stood on the Ukraine-Poland border in a relief centre and spoke with and embraced heartbroken families fleeing the violence,” said Mr Pence. “And I promise you I know the difference between a genius and a war criminal. I know the difference between a territorial dispute and a war of aggression. The war in Ukraine is not our war, but freedom is our fight. And America must always stand for freedom and when I’m your President, we will.”

Report: Steve Bannon subpoenaed by Jack Smith’s Jan 6 probe

01:25 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump’s former White House adviser Steve Bannon has been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith as part of a grand jury in his investigation into the January 6 insurrection, says a report.

The Washington DC grand jury is separate from the investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home after he left the White House.

The subpoena is for both documents and testimony and was sent out in late May, sources told NBC News.

Graeme Massie has the latest.

Trump’s ex-adviser Steve Bannon subpoenaed by Jack Smith’s Jan 6 probe, says report

DeSantis defends flying migrants to California

01:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday defended his state’s decision to fly migrants from the US-Mexico border to California, arguing that the state had essentially invited the migrants with its welcoming policies toward immigrants.

Read more...

DeSantis defends flying migrants to California as he meets with sheriffs near border

Trump reacts with fury at news of possible indictment in classified documents case

Thursday 8 June 2023 00:58 , Oliver O'Connell

Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to share his furious reaction to the news that he may soon be indicted.

The Independent reported earlier on Wednesday that prosecutors are ready to ask grand jurors to approve an indictment against Mr Trump for violating a portion of the US criminal code known as Section 793, which prohibits “gathering, transmitting or losing” any “information respecting the national defence”.

Gustaf Kilander and Andrew Feinberg report from Washington, DC.

Trump says ‘no one has told me I’m being indicted’ in classified documents case

Can Pence match Christie when taking on Trump?

Thursday 8 June 2023 00:53 , Oliver O'Connell

While former Vice President Mike Pence landed a few blows on his one-time running mate, Donald Trump, regarding the January 6 2021 Capitol riot, he also claimed credit for the perceived successes of the Trump administration and said he had been proud to serve alongside him every day.

While Mr Trump has been sparring for some time with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the real anti-Trump attack dog who entered the race most recently is former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney lauds the “fascinating dynamic” Mr Christie brings to the race for the Republican nomination in the way in which he goes after Mr Trump.

He notes on Twitter: “More importantly, Trump has never faced attacks like this (at least not from someone who knows how to deliver them.) Should make the debates must-see-TV.”

Mr Mulvaney adds: “That is, if Trump isn't too afraid to be on stage with Christie.”

No charges filed against Pence in classified papers probe, but prosecutors ready to ask for Trump indictment

Thursday 8 June 2023 00:40 , Oliver O'Connell

The Department of Justice is preparing to ask a Washington, DC grand jury to indict former president Donald Trump for violating the Espionage Act and for obstruction of justice as soon as Thursday, adding further weight to the legal baggage facing Mr Trump as he campaigns for his party’s nomination in next year’s presidential election.

The Independent has learned that prosecutors are ready to ask grand jurors to approve an indictment against Mr Trump for violating a portion of the US criminal code known as Section 793, which prohibits “gathering, transmitting or losing” any “information respecting the national defence”.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, DC.

Prosecutors seeking Trump indictment on obstruction and Espionage Act charges

Pence accuses Trump of treating abortion issue as an ‘inconvenience’

Thursday 8 June 2023 00:10 , Oliver O'Connell

Former Vice President Mike Pence plans to make the expansion of abortion bans a centre plank of his 2024 campaign, and made that clear as he launched his bid for the GOP nomination on Wednesday.

Read more...

Pence accuses Trump of treating abortion issue as an ‘inconvenience’

Mark Meadows has testified to grand jury in special counsel investigations into Trump

Wednesday 7 June 2023 23:50 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump’s former chief of staff testified before a grand jury in Washington DC, according to multiple media reports, in the surest sign in weeks that the Department of Justice’s investigation into January 6 has reached the highest levels of the White House.

John Bowden has the details.

Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows Mark Meadows has testified to federal grand jury

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