Mike Pence in First GOP presidential debate
On Budget & Economy:
I pushed for deficit reduction before it was cool
V.P. Mike PENCE: Vivek, you recently said a President can't do everything. Well, I got news for you. I've been in the West Wing. A President has to confront every crisis facing America. I will put our nation back on the path to growth and prosperity.
Vivek RAMASWAMY: The only war that I will declare as US President will be the war on the federal administrative state that is the source of toxic regulations acting like a wet blanket on the economy. So, I'm not sure exactly understood Mike Pence's
comment.
PENCE: Let me explain it to you. I was a House conservative leader before it was cool. I actually pushed the Deficit Reduction Act. That was the last time we actually reduced the national debt in the United States.
I balanced budgets and cut taxes when I was Governor. Joe Biden has weakened this country at home and abroad. Now is not the time for on-the-job training. We don't need to bring in a rookie.
Source: Fox News 2023 Republican primary debate in Milwaukee
Aug 23, 2023
On Crime:
Don't go easy on bail reform; don't defund the police
Q: How much of what we are seeing happening around this country is a result of those COVID lockdowns? And is your administration in part to blame for how we got here?PENCE: Well, I think what's in part to blame is the Democrats been talking about
defunding the police for the last five years. And we ought to be funding law enforcement, particularly in our major cities at unprecedented levels. And yet Democrats and liberal prosecutors in major metropolitan areas continue to work out their fanciful
agendas, to do bail reform and go easy. What we need is strong commitment to law enforcement. We need leadership in Washington, D.C., that will marshal the resources of the states, marshal the resources of the American people. But when I'm president,
we're going to extend those tax cuts. And we're going to block grant funding back to the states with a growing economy and educational choice and law enforcement. We will bring our cities back.
Source: Fox News 2023 Republican primary debate in Milwaukee
Aug 23, 2023
On Homeland Security:
Supports Reagan Doctrine: peace through strength
We've been the leader of the free world, the arsenal democracy for years. The Reagan Doctrine years ago made it clear, we said, if you're willing to fight the communists on your soil, we'll give you the means to fight them there. So our troops don't
have to fight them.If we give in to Putin to give him his land [in Ukraine], it's not going to be too long for he rolls across a NATO border. And frankly, our men and women of our armed forces are going to have to go and fight him. I want to
let the Ukrainians fight and drive and the Russians back out.
Vladimir Putin has been saying he wants to reestablish the old Soviet sphere of influence. He is a dictator and a murderer and the United States of America needs to stand against
authoritarianism.
Give them a promise that Ukraine will never be an NATO. We achieve peace through strength. And America needs to stand for freedom.
Source: Fox News 2023 Republican primary debate in Milwaukee
Aug 23, 2023
On Abortion:
A 15-week ban is an idea whose time has come
Consensus is the opposite of leadership. And I promise you, as President of the United States, the American people will have a champion for life in the Oval Office. Can't we have a minimum standard in every state in the nation that says when
a baby is capable of feeling pain, an abortion cannot be allowed? A 15-week ban is an idea whose time has come. It's supported by 70 percent of the American people.
Source: Fox News 2023 Republican primary debate in Milwaukee
Aug 23, 2023
On Drugs:
We used economic pressure to bring Mexico to the table
We used economic pressure to bring the Mexicans to the table, and they allowed us to have people wait in Mexico while they applied for asylum and ended asylum abuse overnight. We got the Mexicans to deploy their National Guard to our Southern border as
never before. I will engage Mexico the exact same way, and we will partner with the Mexican military, and we will hunt down and destroy the cartels that are claiming lives in the United States of America.
Source: Fox News 2023 Republican primary debate in Milwaukee
Aug 23, 2023
On Education:
We will give school choice to every family in America
We need a president who knows how Congress works, how the White House works, how states work. And on this education issue, Martha, I was fighting against No Child Left Behind when Republicans were doubling the Department of Education.
I will also shut down the federal Department of Education. And when I was governor, we doubled the size of the largest school choice program in America, and we will give school choice to every family in America when I'm in the White House.
Source: Fox News 2023 Republican primary debate in Milwaukee
Aug 23, 2023
On Principles & Values:
Jan. 6: I chose the Constitution and I always will
Mike PENCE: No one's above the law. And President Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence that every American is entitled to. And we will make sure and extend that to him, that the American people deserve to know that the President asked me in
his request that I reject or return votes unilaterally, power that no Vice President in American history had ever exercised or taken. He asked me to put him over the Constitution. And I chose the Constitution. And I always will.Gov. Chris CHRISTIE:
Mike Pence stood for the Constitution. He deserves not grudging credit. He deserves our thanks as Americans for putting his oath of office and the Constitution of the United States before personal political and unfair pressure. The argument that we need
to have in this party, before we can move on to the issues is we have to dispense with the person who said that we need to suspend the Constitution to put forward his political career. Mike Pence said no, and he deserves credit for it.
Source: Fox News 2023 Republican primary debate in Milwaukee
Aug 23, 2023
On Principles & Values:
Americans are the most faith-filled, freedom-loving people
Mike PENCE: We don't have an identity crisis, Vivek. We're not looking for a new national identity. The American people are the most faith filled, freedom loving, idealistic, hard-working people the world has ever known. We just need government as good
as our people.Vivek RAMASWAMY: Mike, the difference is, you might have a Morning in America speech. It is not Morning in America. We live in a dark moment, and we have to confront the fact that we're in an internal sort of cold cultural civil war.
Source: Fox News 2023 Republican primary debate in Milwaukee
Aug 23, 2023
On Principles & Values:
I have faith that God is not done with America yet
We proved you can turn this country around faster than you can imagine. I have faith we will again. Because I have faith in the American people, the good, decent, hard-working faith-filled, idealistic people of this country. I have faith that God
is not done with America yet. And if we will renew our faith in one another, and renew our faith in him, who has ever guided this nation since we arrived on these wilderness shores I know the best days for the greatest nation on earth are yet to come.
Source: Fox News 2023 Republican primary debate in Milwaukee
Aug 23, 2023
Page last updated: Sep 17, 2023