WILMINGTON — Former Vice President Mike Pence remains loyal to his former running mate, defending the Trump/Pence administration’s record at a UNCW talk Monday despite being rebuked from the party ticket. According to Pence, it’s all about keeping true to his values.
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“President Trump and I had a great relationship during those four years,” Pence told an audience of students, faculty and the public at Kenan Auditorium.
The former vice president was invited to speak and do a Q&A with Jon Evans, WECT anchor, as part of the UNCW Chancellor’s Dare to Learn lecture series. Pence’s remarks ranged from faith and family to his relationship and political record with Trump.
He indicated his relationship with Trump didn’t have the best ending, but he didn’t provide the backstory.
As a mob of protestors stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, some carrying nooses and chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” the former vice president certified the 2020 election results for Joe Biden even as Trump pressured him to call it in Trump’s favor. One hundred and forty-seven Republican lawmakers objected to the certification, including Cape Fear representative David Rouzer.
Later in the program, Pence pointed out that courage to do the right thing under threat of violence is threaded into America’s founding. He pointed to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, even as a British armada threatened attack from the New York harbor.
“Our politics ebbs and flows, and our elbows get a little bit sharp from time and time, and a study of American history will prove to you that that’s always been true, but at the very core, that faith in God expressed in those words, that we’re endowed by our creator with certain alienable rights, that faith in the American people has never faltered,” Pence said.
Still, Pence’s defiance cost him his favor with Trump, who blasted Pence on X following the election certification and replaced him in 2024 with JD Vance. Still, Pence praises Trump, even joining the chorus of Republicans calling for the president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump has openly lobbied for the prize over the last few months, with calls ramping up after the president’s involvement in an Israel and Hamas ceasefire yesterday. But to Pence, Trump’s shining moment was his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“When they told us that it’d be five to seven years before there’d be a vaccine available, and President Trump said, ‘Unacceptable, we’ve got to do better’ and we developed two safe and effective vaccines in nine months — with a lot of help here in North Carolina — I will tell you, President Trump deserves a Nobel Prize for what he accomplished in Operation Warp Speed,” Pence said.
The operation, announced in May 2020, was a federal government partnership with pharmaceutical companies to develop a Covid-19 vaccine using a $10-billion allocation from the CARES Act.
It was largely successful, delivering two working vaccines to the U.S. by the end of 2020. However, in his second term, Trump has appointed Robert Kennedy Jr. as Department of Health and Human Services secretary despite Kennedy previously calling the Covid-19 vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made” and cutting funding for vaccine research.
Pence also praised Trump for his swiftness in shutting off travel from China in the early days of the pandemic, though 45 other countries already did so before Trump enacted restrictions on Feb. 2, nine days after the first ban. Between the first official report of the virus in China and the United States’ implementation of travel restrictions, at least 430,000 people reportedly arrived in the United States on direct flights from China; 40,000 arrived in the two months after President Trump imposed the restrictions.
Pence also claimed the travel ban — which did not apply to U.S. citizens returning from the country — went into effect before there was “a single transmission of Covid anywhere in the United States” though this is false.
Though Pence’s praise also extended to Trump’s current term, including Trump’s tariffs and the “relentless” pursuit of peace in Israel’s conflict with Hamas.
Pence shared he visited the site of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli citizens; Evans asked him if the videos and photos often shared online of the conflict accurately demonstrate the destruction experienced there. Pence responded he once thought the violence was a terrorist attack but now understands it was an “invasion” intended to eradicate all Jewish people in Israel.
“Israel had no choice but to do what they have done,” Pence said. “Now, thanks to President Trump, we have an opportunity for a new beginning, and I’m hoping that’s just a lasting peace.”
Pence has received donations from and spoken at events hosted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group working to strengthen relationships between Israel and the United States.
As Monday’s event was held on a college campus, Pence was asked what North Carolina leaders should do to provide young people with job opportunities; he again pointed to the Trump/Pence administration’s record.
“We believed that economic growth would result from lower taxes on individuals and businesses, less regulation, low-cost energy and then negotiating the lowering of trade barriers and tariffs around the world,” Pence said.
He went on to address tariffs, claiming the ability to threaten to raise them in return for lower trade barriers “is key” to expanding opportunities for young people. Most recently, Trump threatened to reimpose 100% tariffs on China in response to increased port fees the country implemented; Pence claimed the United States could never be too tough on China.
“I think we ought to use access to our economy as a means of bringing China closer into the family of nations,” Pence said.
There has been much criticism of Trump’s tariff policy and the negative consequences it could impose on Americans. American soybean farmers have been particularly battered by the president’s tariffs on China, which was the largest importer of U.S. soybeans. As a result of the trade war, Chinese companies have turned to South America for soybeans, leaving American farmers without its largest customer amid harvest season.
Pence told Monday’s audience he was concerned with the long-term use of tariffs, saying they could “stifle economic growth,” as well as tariffs on U.S. allies.
“I’m going to use whatever remains of my holy pulpit to argue for free tough on China, free trade with free nations as a means of ensuring a growing economy in North Carolina and all across America,” he said.
The policy commentary was brought up by Pence willingly, as most of the questions directed to the vice president revolved around his guiding principles and how to bridge divides in an increasingly polarized society. Though he said he believed the nation’s population is not as divided as lawmakers in Washington, he still tried to be someone that breaches party lines.
He discussed having a great friendship with John Lewis, deceased civil rights activist and congressional representative, despite agreeing on “absolutely nothing.” Pence said the men bonded over their Christian faith.
“It isn’t that John and I never analyzed the things that we’re passionate about; we found things that were more important, things about faith, things about the American experience and the priorities of our nation,” Pence said.
He said being able to listen more than talk to people who disagree is an asset.
When asked how to stay true to one’s values, Pence said surround yourself with people that keep you aligned with your beliefs — and also to marry someone like Karen Pence. He has expressed a deep admiration for his wife in the past and noted how important it was that his family be with him in Washington so he could go home for dinner every night.
Pence’s family life made the headlines in 2017 — “when you’re vice president to President Donald Trump, it’s usually not a struggle not to be the headline,” he joked — over his commitment to never dine alone with another woman.
“It was just a promise I made to my wife that I would be above the appearance of impropriety,” Pence said.
He said he first revealed this in a 2001 interview to no controversy; it later became a subject in the Oval Office.
“I was a little nervous about it, because all the cable news networks were talking about Mike Pence and not dining alone … I walked in the Oval Office, and the President immediately set me at ease because he tells everybody in the Oval Office, he said: ‘Can you believe it? After everything they said about me, they’re attacking Mike Pence for being faithful to his wife,’” Pence recounted.
Several questions for Pence were directed at advising the younger generation of leaders. He said people must stand up for their convictions.
“And what I’ve come to conclude is when the time of testing comes, wanting to be the person you’ve been preparing to be every quiet day before that,” Pence said. “So use this time in your life to build up the qualities of character and habits of integrity that will serve you in that moment.”
Pence met with the UNCW College Republicans before his speech and encouraged them to continue to engage in politics with civility. He pointed out Charlie Kirk, a right-wing political commentator murdered at a college speaking event last month, was pivotal in advancing free and open debate on campus. Some commentators have called this a sanitization of Kirk’s legacy, noting his long list of anti-LGBTQ+, Islamophobic, and otherwise inflammatory remarks.
“I have sensed that something is happening among young people in the country today that are reaching for a higher standard,” Pence said. “I truly do believe the American people long for us to restore a threshold of civility in public life, and I believe it’s going to be this generation of Americans that takes us back to that.”
In perhaps a demonstration of that willingness to engage with anyone, Pence ended his talk by climbing down the auditorium’s steps and wading into the aisle, shaking hands and taking pictures with people from each side.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at [email protected].
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