Former President Donald Trump recently took to his Truth Social account and posted a message writing:
Was just watching Mike Pence make up stories about me, which are absolutely false. I never said for him to put me before the Constitution—I don’t talk that way, and wouldn’t even think to suggest it. Mike failed badly on calling out Voter Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election,… pic.twitter.com/00164h4YBY
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) September 6, 2023
Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday launched his most aggressive attack yet on his former boss, Donald Trump, in his bid to wrest control of the GOP away from what he dubs the populist wing of the party via Media Ite.
It has been noted that Pence slammed the governing philosophy of the hard right of his party as “an agenda stitched together by little else than personal grievances and performative outrage.”
Speaking at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, Pence made clear he believes that conservatism and Trump-era populism cannot both lead the Republican Party:
“The question of the hour then, is not just who, but what will we offer the American people a year from this November? So I came here to Anselm College to simply say from my heart, that Republican voters face a choice in this state and in every state around the nation. As these primaries unfold. And I believe that choice will determine the fate of our party and the course of our nation for years to come.
So today, I ask my fellow Republicans this, in the days to come, will we be the party of conservatism? Or will we follow the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principles? The future of this movement in this party belongs to one or the other, not both.”
Pence mentioned Trump by name during the speech. “When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he promised to govern as a conservative. And together, we did just that, but it’s important for Republicans to know that he and his imitators in this Republican primary make no such promise today.”
Pence’s address was titled, “Populism vs. Conservatism: Republicans’ Time for Choosing,” which invoked a 1964 Reagan in support of Barry Goldwater titled “A Time For Choosing.”
Pence also emphasized the history of the GOP and the conservative movement in America and said, “The truth is the Republican Party did not begin on a golden escalator in 2015” – referring to Trump’s New York City campaign launch.
