Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence held a town hall in Raleigh Thursday morning to ease the concerns of an audience troubled by recent comments made by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
NBC reported that key Republican leadership were planning an “intervention” on the Trump campaign out of fear that Trump doesn’t plan to change his behavior leading up to the general election in November. Trump is five points behind Clinton in national polling data collected by the New York Times, and 10 points behind Clinton in the most recent Fox News poll.
Trump has faced intense backlash for calling into question the character of Khizr Khan, the father of an Muslim-American Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004, who gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention last week in which he challenged Trump on his proposed ban on Muslim immigration.
Pence has spoken out against Trump for withholding support for House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator John McCain in their upcoming elections, and he called Trump’s proposal to ban Muslim immigration “offensive and unconstitutional” on Twitter before backtracking, saying that he supports a “temporary suspension” of Muslim immigration from countries where “terrorist influence … represents a threat to the United States.”
Eleven-year-old Matthew Schricker, one of about 200 in the audience at the Duke Energy Center for Performing Arts, took notice of this trend and asked Pence about his role directly.
“I’ve been watching the news lately and I’ve been noticing that you’ve kind of been softening up on Mr. Trump’s policies and words,” Schricker said. “Is this going to be your role in the administration?”
Pence chuckled, saying, “this boy’s got a future” before continuing: “I couldn’t be more proud to stand with Donald Trump and we are shoulder to shoulder.”
In keeping with the theme of the morning, Pence added, “Differences in style should never be confused with differences in conviction.”
In his prepared remarks, Pence lauded Trump for his strong instincts which he said aren’t constricted by political correctness, calling him “distinctly American.”
“Donald Trump just gets it,” Pence said. “He’s a doer in a game usually reserved for talkers and when Donald Trump does his talking he doesn’t go tip-toeing around thousands of rules of political correctness.”
Pence then turned his focus to recent comments made by President Barack Obama, who called Trump “unfit to serve” and “woefully unprepared” to do the job of the president.
The audience shouted Pence’s next line before he could get it out: “Barack Obama knows a lot about being woefully unprepared.”
Pence said that Obama’s comments about Trump’s judgement were what bothered him the most and listed the failings of judgement of the Obama administration, deriding his administration’s foreign policy and saying that this election is about “change versus the status quo.”
“We cannot have four more years apologizing to and accommodating the enemies of our freedom,” Pence said. “Donald Trump will stand up for the security of the American people.”
The crowd frequently punctuated Pence’s references to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton with cries of “lock her up!” “traitor!” and “liar!” and several were wearing “Hillary for Prison” t-shirts.
Prior to Pence coming on stage, Melisa Boyett, who calls herself “Trump’s trumpet,” snuck on stage to promote her website committed to advocating Biblical principles in government and danced and gesticulated while chanting “I got the spirit, oh yeah!” before being led off stage by Secret Service.
Pence was introduced by several North Carolina GOP leaders, including Lieutenant Governor Dan Forrest, Buck Newton who is running to replace Attorney General Roy Cooper and Senator Thom Tillis.
Tillis challenged the picture of the United States presented by Clinton in her acceptance speech last week which focused on a country that is “already great.”
“Do you think a nation that is 19 trillion dollars in debt is living up to its full potential?”
Matthew Schricker, 11, asks Pence if his roll in the administration is going to be to "soften up" Trump's statements. Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence addressed questions during his town hall, held Thursday morning at the Duke Energy Center for Performing Arts.
