Mike Pence is staying out of this year’s presidential election.
“I could never support the Democrat ticket,” Pence said as the guest speaker of the Long Island Association fall luncheon on Tuesday at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury. “But I’m staying out of the presidential campaign beyond that. I haven’t endorsed our ticket only because I have real concerns about the direction of the Republican party today.”
Pence, the author of two books, “So Help Me God” and “Go Home for Dinner” both published by Simon & Schuster, shared insights on government, politics and more in a wide-ranging interview led by Matt Cohen. Cohen is president and chief executive of the LIA, a not-for-profit, nonpartisan business group.
The LIA luncheon is an annual tradition. Previous speakers have included former presidents such as Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and George H.W. Bush. One year, former Vice President Al Gore spoke, and another former Vice President Dick Cheney was the guest speaker. Sometimes the speaker is a sports legend, including last year, with David Beckham.
This year’s fall luncheon fell a week before Election Day, and more than 700 Long Island leaders attended to hear the 48th vice president.
As Pence sees it, “the Republican party is facing a choice whether we are going to continue to be a mainstream conservative party in the country or whether we are going to follow what I call the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principle. And I think that’s a debate that will go forward. The American people are going to make their choice a week from today.”
The LIA interview featured a short clip of the statement Pence had made as president of the U.S. Senate, condemning the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“Thanks to the swift efforts of U.S Capitol Police, federal, state and local law enforcement, the violence was quelled,” Pence said at the time. “The capital is secured.” Reviewing that video at Tuesday’s LIA luncheon, the audience broke out in applause.
Pence – who considers himself a Christian, a Conservative and a Republican – said he was proud of his years as a public servant, including leading the White House Coronavirus Task Force, driving the development of safe vaccines, testing, medical supplies and more.
“Operation Warp Speed,” he said at the luncheon, was an example of “America Standing Up for America.”
At one point during COVID-19, Pence said, President Donald Trump was asked why the administration wasn’t deploying the Defense Production Act. Trump, according to Pence, said the administration was looking into it. But as Trump and Pence walked back to the Oval Office, Trump asked, “‘How come we’re not using the Defense Production Act?’ And I turned to him and I said ‘Because nobody said no …. Every company that we have reached out to in this country, to do anything, for our fellow Americans has said ‘Yes. When do you need it?’” Companies were changing gears, Pence said, with linen companies adapting to keep people safe, automobile manufacturers building ventilators and more.
Pence said that he and Trump “never had a cross word between us for four-and-a-half years.”
Still, “somewhere toward the end … a group of outside lawyers told the president things that just weren’t so.” Pence said. “As he became convinced that I had some authority to either reject or return votes back to the states, I was determined to stand my ground. Stand firm. To keep my oath.”
Inthe aftermath of Jan. 6, that two had hashed things out in a 90-minute meeting, and “parted very amicably,” Pence said. Trump later thanked Pence and his family by name for their service upon leaving Andrews Air Force Base.
“We spoke from time to time and to be honest with you, I always thought he would come around to see that he had been misinformed about my authority and duty. But that was not to be. As time went on, he returned to much of the rhetoric that proceeded that day,” Pence said. “And so we’ve gone our separate ways.”
Addressing his concerns about the Republican party, he said, “I see increasingly voices in our party that are prepared to walk away from our allies and American leadership in the world, voices that are prepared to ignore the national debt, and voices that are marginalizing the sanctity of life.”
Pence anticipates respecting how voters choose come Election Day. “But for me, the direction and the course of the Republican party is of great and enormous importance to the life of the nation,” he said. “I’m going to be a voice for American leadership on the world stage, a strong military, a limited government, fiscal responsibility, pro-growth policies, and traditional values for the rest of my life.”
Now, there are many who “feel their values are being trampled on and disrespected,” he said. “But that doesn’t change the fact that we’re the leader of the Free World. And anybody that says that we can’t solve our problems here at home and be the leader of the free world has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on Earth. We can do both.”
As people head to the polls, “I have a hope and a confidence that we’ll move through this election,” Pence said. “We’ll have the decision, and then the American people will do what we always do. And that is, we’ll come together and we will face the common challenges that our nation faces.”