EXCLUSIVE – BOSTON – He is out of power, but former Vice President Mike Pence does not feel powerless.
Pence, the once loyal vice president who broke with President Donald Trump as he defied his one-time boss’s request to throw out the results of the 2020 presidential election, pledged to be a vocal GOP critic when Trump, during his second tour of duty in the White House, veers from the “conservative agenda” that defined the Trump-Pence administration.
“When you look at those Trump-Pence years, they were years that we governed on a conservative agenda,” the former vice president said in an exclusive national digital interview with Fox News minutes after receiving the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in Boston on Sunday night.
Pence said he gives “President Trump all the credit in the world for an historic victory last November, and for sparing the country one more liberal Democrat administration.”
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He also praised Trump “not only for his victory, but for securing our southern border, for restoring morale and recruitment in our military, for taking the fight to the Houthis.”
However, he argued that “I truly do believe that some of the other steps the president is taking away from that conservative agenda should be a concern that would work against his legacy and ultimately the success of our party or our country. And so we’re going to continue to be a voice against them.
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“I really do believe that for prosperity…for the success of our country, we need to stick to those time-honored principles of strong defense, American leadership on the world stage, less government, less taxes, traditional moral values, and the right to life, and I’m going to be a voice for that,” added Pence, long a champion of social and fiscal conservative values.
On the suggestion in recent weeks by some House Republicans to raise taxes on the wealthy to help pay for Trump’s second-term agenda, an idea some in the White House contemplated before the president came out against the proposal, Pence was clear in his opposition.
“Any suggestion that I’ve heard among some in and around the administration that we raise the top margin rate, the so-called millionaires tax, would be an enormous tax increase on small business owners across America,” Pence said.
He additionally emphasized that “It needs to be opposed. Let’s make all the Trump-Pence tax cuts permanent. That’s a way to really lay a foundation to grow the economy in the days ahead.”
The former vice president, a proponent of a muscular U.S. foreign policy, has criticized the president’s upending of longstanding U.S. foreign policy and has urged Trump to stand with longtime international allies.
Pence received a standing ovation from the audience at Boston’s JFK Presidential Library when, in his acceptance address, he stressed that the U.S. “must continue to stand with Ukraine.”
Pence ran on a traditional conservative platform, framing the future of the Republican Party against what he called the rise of “populism” in the party, as he bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, as part of a large field that unsuccessfully challenged Trump.
While Pence, who became the first running mate in over 80 years to run against their former boss, regularly campaigned in the crucial early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, his White House bid never took off.
Struggling in the polls and with fundraising, he suspended his campaign just four and a half months after launching it.
When asked if there was another political chapter ahead, and possibly another bid for national office, Pence told Fox News Digital, “I leave that up to the American people.”
He reiterated that he intends to “be a voice” for traditional and conservative values and “we’ll let the future take care of itself.”
As for Trump’s repeated flirtations the past three months with seeking a third term in office in 2028 – which is forbidden by the 22nd Amendment in the U.S. Constitution – Pence said, “I think there’s no higher priority for a president or any elected official to keep faith with the Constitution of the United States.”
“Every single one of us takes the same oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and my hope and my prayer is for the president on down, Republicans and Democrats, will take that oath to heart, because that’s the pathway forward for our country and all the American people,” he added.
Pence spoke with Fox News Digital after receiving the Profile in Courage Award, which is named for a book the late John F. Kennedy published in 1957 before he became president.
The annual award honors public officials who take principled stands despite the potential political or personal consequences. Among the previous recipients were former Presidents Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford.
Pence was honored with the award for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, during the attack on the U.S. Capitol by right-wing extremists — including some chanting “hang Mike Pence” — who stormed the U.S. Capitol aiming to upend congressional certification of the 2020 election.
Hours later, after the rioters were cleared from the Capitol building, Pence resumed his constitutional duties by overseeing congressional certification of former President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
“Vice President Pence put his life, career and that of his family on the line to execute his constitutional responsibilities. His actions preserved the fundamental democratic principle of free and fair elections, and we are proud to honor him,” former Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, the late President Kennedy’s daughter, said in presenting Pence with the award.
Pence, in accepting the annual award, emphasized that it is a “distinction that I will cherish for the rest of my life.”
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The former vice president, pointing to his actions on Jan. 6, said to a standing ovation, “I will always believe by God’s grace that I did my duty that day.”
Additionally, Pence, in his interview, noted that “in all my travels across the country in the last four years, I’ve been deeply humbled by how many Americans have come up to me and just taken a point to encourage us and support us, and it convinces me that the American people know that what ever differences we may have, the Constitution is the common ground on which we stand.”
