Following duel in the desert, Trump, Pence to give high-profile speeches in nation’s capital this week
Former President Trump is back in Washington, D.C. this week, his first since leaving the White House one year ago.
Tuesday’s keynote speech will be delivered by the former president at the America First Policy Institute summit, which is a non-profit organization and think tank that was founded last year by Trump officials.
The event is only for invitation-only guests and is not open to the general public. However, speeches including that of the former president will be streamed live.
Trump was last seen in Washington, D.C. January 20, 2021. He left Washington, D.C. hours before Joe Biden was inaugurated. This made him the first president to leave the country in over a century.
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This file photo of President Trump speaking in the press room, as Vice President Mike Pence is listening in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
The day before Trump’s Tuesday speech , former Vice President Mike Pence will give what’s being called a high-profile speech at the Heritage Foundation. It will be focused on his “freedom agenda”, policy initiatives, and his vision of the future of Republican Party.
Two weeks after Trump’s departure, Pence became a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. It is one of the most important and oldest think tanks in the conservative movement. The ex-vice president has been traveling the country to help fellow Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections and to highlight his agenda which could be a theme for his likely presidential run in 2024.
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Trump has been flirting with a second presidential run ever since he left the White House. He recently gave his strongest hint yet about his intentions. In a New York Magazine interview, Trump seemed to indicate that 2024 is all about when and not if.
Trump stated that his biggest decision would be whether he goes before or after. This interview was published one week and a quarter ago. It appears Trump was referring to November’s midterm elections.
Trump flirted with the idea of a 2024 presidential run Saturday night as he addressed Turning Point USA Student Action Summit.
He repeated his familiar line “we may just need to do it again” referring to a 2024 presidential election. He added: “If I stayed at home, if i declared that I wasn’t going to run for office,” the persecution of Donald Trump will immediately cease. But that’s exactly what they want me do. You know what? It’s impossible for me to do that.”
Trump and Pence in a duel in the desert
Trump and Pence appear to be competing addresses in Washington, D.C., just days after holding dueling events.
Trump addressed a rally in Prescott Valley (Arizona), on Friday for Kari Lake, a former TV news anchor who is running for the Republican gubernatorial nominee. The rally was for Blake Masters, entrepreneur, for Senate; Abe Hamadeh, for Arizona attorney general; and Mark Finchem, for Arizona secretary.
Trump’s list of candidates strongly supports Trump’s unproven claim that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” or “stolen.”
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Pence addressed events in Phoenix and Tucson for Karrin Taylor Robertson, a real estate developer and Arizona Board of Regents Member. He had just endorsed Taylor Robson. Taylor Robson, a co-frontrunner with Lake in the GOP gubernatorial race in the Aug. 2-primary in the race for term-limited GOP Gov. Doug Ducey.
Pence, who was accompanied by Ducey at Arizona’s two stops, said that Taylor Robson had done a great job for Trump-Pence. He added, “No one worked harder to support the Trump-Pence ticket 2016 or 2020 than Karrin Taylor Robson.” … She was a volunteer and she raised millions of dollars for our campaign. Karrin was always there when we needed her.”
He took aim at Lake and questioned her conservative credentials.
Pence stated, “Look, I’m always glad to welcome converts into the Republican Party,” referring to Lake. “But Arizona Republicans don’t need a governor who supported Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.”
As he has done in the past Pence encouraged voters to focus on the future and not “the present,” which seemed to be a reference to his former boss’s refusal of accepting Biden’s victory in 2020.
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“Some people want this election about the past. But elections are always about what is ahead.” Pence commented on Twitter after his Arizona visits, saying that Democrats would love for Republicans to focus on the past and Democrats would do anything to make this happen.
Trump praised Lake and the other endorsed candidates during his rally, and once more slammed Ducey. Trump’s anger at Arizona’s conservative governor was for certifying Biden’s narrow victory in Arizona in 2020’s election. Ducey famously silenced Trump’s call in December 2020 when he certified the state’s results.
At a rally in Prescott Valley on July 22, 2022, former President Trump embraces Republican candidate Kari Lake. Arizona’s primary elections will be held Aug. 2. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Pence’s split from Trump in Arizona was his second major newsworthy one in the GOP primaries in the past two months. Former vice president endorsed Republican Georgia Governor. Brian Kemp campaigned outside Atlanta with the conservative governor on the eve the state’s May 24-26 primary. Trump-backed Sen. David Perdue was defeated by Kemp in the primary. Trump had been targeting Kemp repeatedly since Georgia’s governor certified 2020 election results. In Georgia, Biden narrowly beat Trump in a crucial battleground state.
However, unlike Georgia, where Kemp was well ahead of Perdue at the time that Pence supported the governor, the race between Taylor Robson, Lake, and Lake is still very competitive.
The implications of the proxy battles between Trump and Pence in key battleground states like Arizona and Georgia are important for the GOP in November’s elections. However, they also provide a preview of a possible clash between the former running partners in the 2024 Republican presidential nominee race.
Pence stops in D.C., South Carolina to grab headlines
Pence’s Monday trip to Washington, D.C. is not Trump’s first since the Trump administration ended. Pence was last week in Washington, D.C., where he made headlines.
Pence met Wednesday with the Republican Study Committee to discuss the topic. Pence introduced Kevin McCarthy, House GOP leader, Tuesday night at a fundraiser in support of top Republican congressional candidates. Pence is an ally of the group’s leader, Rep. Jim Banks from Indiana. He would be a strong supporter of any Pence presidential campaigns.
Some lawmakers thanked Pence during the breakfast closed to the press. 6, 2021: Right-wing extremists and Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol to stop congressional certification of Biden’s Electoral College win. Some chanted “hang Mike Pence.” Pence declined Trump’s requests to reverse the election results. Fox News sources say that Pence was encouraged by some lawmakers to run for President in 2024.
Marc Short, an adviser and close aide to Pence, said that Pence had received encouragement from the Republican Study Committee in the past. This week’s visit was different because it was in a more public setting… where they were giving that encouragement in front others.
Some of the comments made by attendees at the Pence breakfast may be another sign that some Republican lawmakers, who have long supported Pence in private, are more comfortable expressing their support in public.
Mike Pence, former Vice President, concludes his speech at Florence Baptist Temple Wednesday July 20, 2022 in Florence, S.C. Pence was making his third visit to South Carolina early-voting South Carolina within the same month to make remarks about “the post-Roe future.” (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
After his stop in Washington, D.C., Pence traveled directly to South Carolina. He praised the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling which sent the controversial issue of legalized abortion back home to the states. Pence, a long-standing champion of social conservatives, highlighted steps that he would like to see the states take to limit abortion access. These were Pence’s first public comments about abortion since last month’s blockbuster high court ruling.
Short pointed out that Pence “has been fighting this battle since decades.” He’s been at the forefront of this battle for decades, and he’s happy that many of his efforts have paid off.
He stressed that “there’s a time of gratification”, but the former vice president is speaking out “in a spirit of compassion to women who are facing unwanted pregnancies.” Short stated that the GOP must “show that our party can reach women in crisis”
He also noted that Pence uses crisis pregnancy centres as a location for his speeches on the topic of abortion, and that more speeches are being planned for this year.
Pro-choice activists react after the historic Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe Vs. Wade. (Fox News Digital).
Pence made his sixth visit to South Carolina in the past year. This is the third stop in the Republican presidential nominating cycle. South Carolina is a state where the Republican party votes third and where social conservatives play a large role in primary elections.
Pence New Hampshire bound
Since leaving office, Pence also visited Iowa, where the GOP’s caucuses kick-off the nominations schedule, as well as New Hampshire, which votes second, and holds the first presidential primaries.
Another sign that Pence is preparing for a possible White House bid is his return to Granite State August 17 to headline New Hampshire Institute of Politics’Politics and Eggs. The St. Anselm College speaking series is a must-see for potential presidential candidates as well as those who are interested in the White House. It has been the premier state of the nation’s presidential primary state for over two decades.
“There is a lot of interest in hearing from the ex-vice president. “When will Vice President Pence be coming to the institute?” I get asked this question all the time,” Neil Leveque, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, told Fox News.
It’s possible that Pence will also return to Iowa this summer.
Short described Pence’s travels as an “aggressive agenda” and said that after four years as vice president, “you are used to that kind of pace.”
