Exclusive — Mike Pence: 2020 a Choice Between ‘Leadership’ and ‘the Left’

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Vice President Mike Pence told Breitbart News exclusively on Thursday that the “stakes have never been higher” than the 2020 presidential election in a choice between “leadership” from President Donald Trump and the radical “left” from former Vice President Joe Biden.

“I think the stakes have never been higher, and the choice has never been clearer,” Pence said in the exclusive interview on Thursday on his and Trump’s campaign bus. “In President Donald Trump, you have a leader who’s delivered on every promise that he made to the people of America—to rebuild our military, to revive our economy, to appoint conservatives to our courts at every level—and has seen our nation through one of the greatest health challenges in the past 100 years. In Joe Biden, you have a candidate that’s being driven by the radical left calling for more taxes, more regulation, and advocating the kind of policies that will literally trample on the Second Amendment rights and values. The Supreme Court decision yesterday on the Little Sisters of the Poor finally set right what was wrong in the Obama-Biden administration that sought to trample on religious freedom. This president took executive action to stand for religious liberty and the Supreme Court, and both decisions affirmed our commitment to our highest ideal.”

Pence continued by noting that the choice American voters have in November is clear, one “between leadership and the left.”

“So I think it’s about that, but it’s a real choice as well between leadership and the left,” Pence said. “In President Donald Trump, you have leadership that’s been advancing an agenda that’s made America stronger than ever before, has been willing to defend America at home and abroad, willing to stand with law enforcement without apology, and freed up the American economy through less taxes and less regulation, more American energy, and free and fair trade. He stood on the values and ideals enshrined in our Bill of Rights and the right to life.”

In contrast, “In Joe Biden, you have someone who presided over a time of cutbacks in our military, opposed the military strike against Osama bin Laden, who’s already advocating an agenda to raise taxes, advanced the policies of the Green New Deal, and has trampled on the American energy renaissance that’s underway and [wants to] return to the economic surrender to China and other nations that was emblematic of the last administration.”

Pence, too, noted that the current debate regarding police in the United States—where Democrats have sought to defund police departments, and Trump and Republicans have stood up for law enforcement—is a clearcut example of where the contrast between Trump’s leadership and Biden’s kowtowing to the left is on display. Pence’s interview came just hours before he appeared at a Fraternal Order of Police lodge event in Philadelphia for a “Back the Blue” rally with police officers.

“I also think the choice between leadership and the left is emblematic when you look at this president’s approach to law and order and his stand for law enforcement,” Pence said. “Joe Biden, who yesterday actually used the word ‘enemy’ to describe men and women in law enforcement, said he’d be willing to cut funding for law enforcement. We’re not going to defund the police. We’re going to stand by the men and women of law enforcement, and we’re going to fund better public safety in this country, which is what the American people want to happen. The whole range of issues, to me, really is a choice between American leadership and the far left. And it’s why I’m confident the American people are going to choose American leadership and four more years of President Donald Trump.”

Pence also made clear in the interview, as Breitbart News previously reported, that the “only thing” that stands between Americans and the radical “far left” policies of the Democrat Party is a second term for President Trump. Earlier in the week, before this interview, Biden rolled out a “unity” plan with socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, where Biden actually lifted several passages straight from Sanders’ socialist agenda word-for-word, adopting them as his own now. Asked about this, and if this proves that radical left element now controls Biden, Pence said this platform document is proof that Biden is not a moderate like he claims to be, but just as far left as the socialists ascendant within the Democrat Party.

“My first look at their so-called ‘unity platform’ is it looks like Joe Biden has fully united with the American left,” Pence said. “The American people see through it. You look at a whole range of policies where he’s abandoned positions he took in the past. It just tells you that this election is not just about a choice between President Trump and Joe Biden; it’s really a choice between an agenda that made America great again and poured a foundation that’s seen our nation through one of the most challenging times in my lifetime and an agenda that would try to remake America along some European-style welfare state abandoning our ideals, abandoning our history, and abandoning our values.”

Pence also, as Breitbart News has reported, highlighted the fact that Sanders is now effusively praising Biden, claiming he would be the most progressive leftist president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt—even more leftist than Barack Obama was when Biden served as his vice president.

“I just saw where Bernie Sanders said that Joe Biden could be the most progressive president since FDR,” Pence said. “When you have the enthusiasm of a socialist who ran for president, when you have the enthusiastic support of people who want to crush this economy with more taxes and more regulation…I think this is a freedom-loving country, and the American people are going to choose freedom on November 3 when they vote to reelect President Donald Trump.”

The full interview with Pence aired on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel on Saturday morning.

LISTEN TO VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE ON BREITBART NEWS SATURDAY: