By Katherine Tinsley
9:10am PDT, May 7, 2025
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"Whatever the future holds for me, I'm going to try and be a consistent voice for those conservative values that I think are not only the right policy for the Republican Party, but I think they're the best way forward for a boundless future for the American people," Mike Pence said in a CNN interview on Monday, May 5.
Pence began to distance himself from Donald Trump after the president demanded that the then-vice president go against the Constitution on January 6 and overturn the 2020 election results.
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After Mike Pence took a vocal stance against Donald Trump's involvement in the January 6 insurrection, their relationship unraveled.
"I was deeply disappointed to see President Trump pardon people that engaged in violence against law enforcement officers that day," Pence stated.
"The president has every right under the Constitution to grant pardons, but in that moment, I thought it sent the wrong message," he continued.
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According to Mike Pence, his wife and daughter were at the Capitol during the insurrection, where they could hear Donald Trump fans chanting, "Hang Mike Pence."
"None of them flinched," Pence said, in reference to the U.S. Capitol Police. "Their courage, their bravery, should be heralded for generations to come, because they secured the Capitol and allowed us to reconvene the very same day and complete our work under the Constitution."
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Mike Pence also shared his fears about Donald Trump's economic plan for the country.
"I do have concerns that, with the president's call for broad-based tariffs against friend and foe alike, that ultimately the administration is advancing policies that are not targeted at countries that have been abusing our trade relationship, but rather are essentially new industrial policy that will result in inflation, that will harm consumers and that will ultimately harm the American economy," Pence admitted.
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Mike Pence later shared that he embraces globalization despite his former boss' strong stance against foreign goods.
"We ought to be engaging our trading partners across the free world to lower trade barriers, lower non-tariff barriers and subsidies," he said. "But when it comes to authoritarian regimes, we ought to get tough, stay tough and demand that they open their markets and respect our intellectual property."
"I do think this version of tariff policy that's broad-based, indiscriminate, applies tariffs to friend and foe alike, is not a win for the American people," Pence added.
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Mike Pence also stated that Donald Trump's "reciprocal tariffs" could greatly impact Americans.
"I do have a concern that when the so-called 90-day pause comes off, that even the administration has conceded that there may be a price shock in the economy, and there may be shortages," Pence said.
