DES MOINES, Iowa — Former Vice President Mike Pence‘s presidential campaign is at a turning point as his participation in this month’s debate remains uncertain, but a clearer picture of his cooperation with special counsel Jack Smith‘s investigation into former President Donald Trump‘s efforts to overturn the 2020 election is emerging.
But as Pence receives press attention and raises money after Smith’s indictment, relitigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is reminding prospective Iowa Republican primary caucusgoers of their reservations regarding the former vice president in the first place.
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Pence has criticized Trump for asking him to choose between him and the Constitution after Smith’s indictment revealed the former vice president shared his contemporaneous notes of Trump’s attempts to prevent the certification of the Electoral College with the special counsel.
“The president asked me, and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me to literally reject votes which would have resulted in the issue being turned over to the House of Representatives and literally chaos would have ensued,” Pence told Fox News this week.
But outside a meet and greet event hosted by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in Chariton, Kathy Harvey, 66, was one of the majority of Republicans who do not consider Trump to be guilty of any wrongdoing concerning Jan. 6, expressed disappointment in Pence for not supporting Trump.
“I don’t know that I can believe what Mr. Pence says,” the Chariton musician said last week. “I really don’t trust him. His actions do not speak like his words do, so I’m not very favorable right now about Mr. Pence.”
Iowa presents Pence’s best opportunity of the four first-in-the-nation nominating contests because of the state’s evangelical community. But as other candidates underscore their faith and potential caucusgoers are still skeptical of the former vice president after Jan. 6, he has not polled passed single digits. Trump averages 50% in Iowa to DeSantis’s 17%, Sen. Tim Scott‘s (R-SC) 8%, biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswarmy‘s 4%, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Pence’s 4%, according to RealClearPolitics.
Harvey’s friend Angela Rich, 43, contended evangelicals want “somebody who is true, not just in name.”
“Not like, ‘Oh, you’re an evangelical. We’ll automatically support you,'” the Chariton stay-at-home mother said.
“I try to look at their—” Harvey added.
“Actions,” Rich finished.
Before the DeSantis event, Greg Carlton, 70, described Pence as “woke” and alleged the vice president, without evidence, was leveraging his Christianity despite his long public record of discussing his faith.
“Anybody who uses the Lord to gain something, they’re not Christian,” the Chariton retiree said.
Behind them, Brad Reese, 61, was more diplomatic, calling Pence a “good man” with “very good morals” but conceding that the vice president would not “gain traction” with him because he has “become very wishy-washy.”
“The ones that would commit and come out and openly tell people that if they were elected, that they would pardon President Trump for what’s going on — because what they’re doing to President Trump is — it’s unconscionable what they’re doing to him compared to what they do to say, Hunter Biden, and Mike Pence, he would not commit to that,” the Chariton farmer said. “He said, ‘Well, we’ll just have to see what happens.’ I didn’t care for that.”
But Pence does have some support in Iowa. Before a Scott town hall in Ankeny, Dean Lyons, 58, repeated that Pence “saved America” because he did not “put up with Trump’s crap” and “do what Trump wanted him to do.”
“He stood up when he could’ve folded like all these others who folded,” the Grand Junction retiree said. “I’ve been around long enough. I’ve seen it when I was around [former President Barack] Obama in ’08 how he didn’t, and then he caught on. Look at [President Joe] Biden. He didn’t catch on until he was in South Carolina. So I’m not worried. It’s still quite a ways away.”
Lyons’s advice to Pence six months before the caucuses is to keep speaking with Iowans.
But with Trump’s legal problems overshadowing the Republican primary, Rhonda Huegerich, 53, admitted she is “ambivalent” about Pence, particularly with the breadth and depth of the field.
“I’m like ‘meh,'” the Norwalk project manager said. “It’s not like I don’t like the guy or anything, but I just don’t feel like he’s strong enough necessarily to take that office and really take charge.”
Pence’s campaign announced Thursday more than 7,400 donors made contributions to his bid on Wednesday alone, inching closer to the Republican National Committee‘s 40,000 donor requirement, with 200 unique donors needed in 20 or more states. Aides also told donors this week that the former vice president has “well over 30,000” contributors.
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“I believe truth is a force of nature,” Pence said in Iowa last week. “We’re just going to keep telling the truth about what the Constitution requires, how we did our duty by God’s grace on that day to support our oath to the Constitution of the United States, and I’m confident people across Iowa and people across America every single day are coming to understand that we did our duty that day.”
The Pence campaign on Thursday additionally started selling merchandise with the phrase “Too honest,” which is what is claimed Trump said to him when the former vice president declined to take part in his 2020 election scheme.
