Pence digs at Trump’s 2020 lie: ‘elections are about the future’ – live | US politics

On Jul 26, 2022

Pence digs at Trump over 2020 obsession

Mike Pence has been taking shots at his former boss Donald Trump during an appearance at the Young America’s Foundation conference in Washington DC this morning, urging his audience of conservative students to look to the future, not backwards.

The former vice-president, who is mulling his own run for the presidency in 2024, is touting a “freedom agenda” which he says is forward focused.

Mike Pence at the Young America’s Foundation’s conference on Tuesday Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

His mentions of Trump by name were limited to claiming credit for their administration’s perceived achievements. But the former president’s ongoing obsession with his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden is clearly on Pence’s mind:

Some people may choose to focus on the past. But elections are about the future. And I believe conservatives must focus on the future to win back America.

We can’t afford to take our eyes off the road in front of us.

His comments appeared more tame than previous attacks on his one-time boss, whose supporters wanted to hang Pence during the deadly 6 January Capitol riot as Trump pressed him to refuse to certify Biden’s victory.

But with the former running mates appearing to move in opposite directions, highlighted by their backing of rival candidates in Arizona’s Republican primary for state governor, Pence is keen to assert he is the politician looking to the future.

I came today not to look backwards but to look forward. The truth of the matter is, now more than ever, conservatives need to be focused on the challenges Americans are facing today and offer bold and positive agenda solutions for the future.

The conservative movement has always been built on the notion that ideas have consequences. Conservatism is bigger than any one moment, any one election, or any one person. It’s always been about ideas.

Referring to the cancelation of his scheduled speech at the Heritage Foundation last night, due to a thunderstorm, Pence said:

More than ever, we need to lead America with a freedom agenda focused on the future. God must have had different plans for today. For he must have decided that a talk about the future… should be given to the rising generation.

His hour-long speech ended with one final dig:

I truly believe elections are about the future. That is absolutely essential… that we don’t give way to the temptation to look back.

We’ll be watching Trump’s response this afternoon when he speaks at the America First Agenda summit, also in Washington.

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The former vice-president, who is mulling his own run for the presidency in 2024, is touting a “freedom agenda” which he says is forward focused.

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