DES MOINES, Iowa – Former Vice President Mike Pence at the 10th Annual Family Leadership Summit on Friday said he came back to Iowa (including an appearance at U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra’s fundraiser in Sioux Center) for two reasons.
The first was to thank Iowans.
“I must tell you that the support of the people of Iowa, most especially the prayers of the faithful in this state and around the country have sustained us through all of our years of public service. And over the last four years, the sweetest words I ever heard when I was out traveling the country, when people would reach across rope line, like they did today when I was in western Iowa, and just say, ‘I’m praying for you.’ And so I just want to thank, thank you for the privilege of serving as your vice president. It was the greatest honor of my life,” Pence said.
The second reason he came to Iowa was to blast Biden Administration and Congressional Democrat policies.
“I came here today to say after 177 days of open borders, higher taxes, runaway spending, defunding the police, abortion on demand, censoring free speech, canceling our most cherished liberties. I’ve had enough. And the time has come for every American dedicated to faith and freedom to stand up and fight back against the agenda of the radical left,” Pence stated.
“You look at the agenda of the Biden-Harris administration and the damage they’ve done to this country in such a short period of time we know what our job is,” he added.
Pence touted the work the Trump administration accomplished in the four years he served as vice president.
“Over the past four years, as Republicans, we showed what you can accomplish if you stand firm on conservative principles and don’t back down. It’s amazing to think all we accomplished over the past 48 months, lowest unemployment highest household income, the most energy production, the most pro-American trade deals the most secure border and the strongest military in the history of the world, in four short years we made America greater than ever before,” he said.
Pence also reminded the audience that under the Trump administration, they rebuilt the military after “reckless budget cutting,” stating they gave the military the resources they needed. He touted how they reformed the Veterans Administration and signed into law the largest tax cuts in history. In addition, he pointed out their deregulatory efforts, energy production, and efforts to improve trade with China.
“It was our administration that finally held China accountable for years of trade abuses and intellectual property theft,” he said.
Pence also boasted about the 90 percent reduction in illegal immigration during the Trump administration. He also boasted about the Trump administration’s efforts combating COVID-19.
“In the face of the worst pandemic in a century, we launched the greatest national mobilization since World War Two and on the day we left office, we were vaccinating one million Americans a day. You know I’ll always be proud of how the American people responded, especially our health care providers in the course of the last year and one of the lessons we learned is we can never again be dependent on foreign nations for essential health care, supplies, we must take a strong stand to bring our health care companies and production back to the United States of America,” he argued.
Pence pointed out the Trump administration’s stance toward Israel, including moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. He also highlighted President Trump’s Supreme Court picks.
He also highlighted help provided to persecuted Christians that the United Nations neglected, explicitly funding the rebuilding of Christian communities in the Ninevah plain that ISIS had ravaged.
Pence then focused on the Trump administration’s pro-life efforts.
“I couldn’t be more proud… to have been part of an administration that stood every day without apology for the sanctity of human life. From the very first day of our administration, we reinstated the Mexico City policy to make sure that abortions would not be funded or promoted with tax dollars around the world. We cut funding to the United Nations Population Fund, and I have the privilege of being the first vice president in history to address the national March for Life on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.,” he said.
Pence then complained about the Biden administration working to undo what they accomplished.
“Just 177 days, the Biden Harris administration has unleashed a tidal wave of left-wing policies to threaten to wipe out all the progress that we make for American families and American values. I mean, Democrats have moved so fast to move their liberal agenda, sometimes I feel like the left hand doesn’t know what the far left hand is doing,” he stated.
Pence blasted the Biden Administration’s proposed tax hike, spending, plans to cut military spending, stopping construction on the border wall and reversing some of their immigration policies.
“They literally turned the most secure border in our history to the worst border crisis, ever,” he said.
Pence, like the other speakers during the day, then turned his attention to Critical Race Theory.
“Maybe one of the most troubling developments of the past few months has been the Biden Harris administration’s wholehearted embrace of the radical left all encompassing assault on American culture. Under the Biden Aministration, patriotic education has been replaced by political indoctrination. They abolished our 1776 Commission and authorized teaching Critical Race Theory in our schools. Instead of teaching all our children to be proud of their country. Critical Race Theory teaches children as young as kindergarten to be ashamed of their skin color. Critical Race Theory is state-sanctioned, racism, pure and simple, and it should be opposed by every American every day,” he argued.
Pence also pointed at efforts to defund the police and the increasing crime rate.
He said the nation needs to turn back to God.
“When a people forget God, government grows, and liberties recede,” Pence said. “To turn this country around, we need to turn the American people back to God, back to one nation, under God.”
“We got to stand strong. We need to defend believers all across the country and their religious freedom. We need to reject every effort to marginalize Christians and conservatives. We need to expose religious persecution. What is masquerading as a quest for equal rights, and we must never allow our schools or government agencies, or corporations to persecute the American people because of their deeply held religious beliefs,” he added.
Pence closed with an encouraging word.
“God is at work. And we ought to enter this challenging time with that confidence,” he said.
Pence closed by encouraging the audience to “keep the faith,” but he articulated American civil religion, not Christianity.
“Keep the faith in the founders of this country and the timeless wisdom of the Declaration and Constitution. We need to be the movement that keeps our oaths even when it hurts. We need to be the party and the movement of the Constitution and the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and rededicate ourselves to those American ideals as never before,” he said.
“Then we need to keep faith in Him who has ever been with the American people since the Pilgrims first stepped off Plymouth Rock this great state was carved out in the wilderness, who’s with us still today. Who says, ‘I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future,'” Pence added.
“I believe that if we will keep the faith – keep the faith that our highest ideals, keep faith in the American people, and renew our trust in him. There’s a future and a hope far beyond anything we could ask or imagine, because God has not done with America yet,” he concluded.
Listen to his full remarks below:
