‘You Bet!’ Pence Says He Can’t Wait To Get Trump On Debate Stage — So He Can Totally Call Him Out
Former Vice President Mike Pence told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins he is champing at the bit to get ex-President Donald Trump on a debate stage so he can call him out.
On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins interviewed Pence and managed to squeeze a few drops out of him that went beyond the rotation of canned quotes from his book that Pence has been shopping in interviews for several months.
Early in the interview, Collins grilled Pence on foreign policy, and while Pence insisted he was “proud” of the Trump administration record, he repeatedly told Collins he can’t wait to get Trump on a debate stage to “call him out” over differences that have emerged since then:
COLLINS: What were your biggest points of disagreement with your now-challenger?
PENCE: I wrote a book about those years, and I wrote a lot about those differences that we have. But, as vice president, I thought it was always important to share my opinion with the president in private.
But, look, I feel like I know Donald Trump well. I would, frankly, relish the opportunity to be on stage, because I honestly think that the path that we struck during the Trump/Pence administration, a path of a strong national defense, American leadership in the world, a path of pro-growth policies, and at least a commitment to fiscal responsibility and a commitment to the right to life, is different than the path that the former president is on right now.
I — I would relish the opportunity to debate not just the future of the Republican Party, but the future of the country. I’m somebody that, as the former president and, frankly, others in this race are minimizing the importance of American leadership in the world, I think, as I said before, we have got to be the leader of the free world.
We have got to stand strong with those that are standing up against tyranny and push back on authoritarian regimes and their use of aggression…
COLLINS: Yes. You say you…
PENCE: … to redraw international lines, fiscal responsibility the same, the right to life the same.
I see the president, in one case after another, kind of shying away from the agenda that carried us to the White House in 2016, got 10 million more votes in 2020. And, frankly, it’s still the platform that I’m going to campaign on in 2024.
COLLINS: Well, it sounds like you’re saying you would call him out on that on the debate stage.
PENCE: You bet!
COLLINS: I mean, Chris Christie says that Trump’s ego won’t allow him to miss the debate. Obviously, he has threatened to skip it. Do you agree with Chris Christie on that, that his ego won’t allow him to miss the debate?
PENCE: Well, I hope he’s there.
I mean, I’m — I intend to be on that debate stage in late August, and I look forward to squaring off and talking about the issues. Look, the American people are hurting right now. This economy is struggling. The world seems to be more dangerous by the day. We have got the worst crisis on our Southern border in American history.
Many Americans feel that their liberties and values are under constant assault. And I think carrying forward an unapologetic mainstream, conservative agenda and juxtaposing that with some who would — who want to follow the siren song of populism for the Republican Party is going to be a worthy debate.
And I’m looking forward to it.
COLLINS: Are you going to qualify for the debate stage?
PENCE: And I hope he’s going to be there.
You bet. We will be on that debate stage. We’re working every day to get to that threshold, 40,000. But I have to tell you, it’s humbling to me, ever since we announced, how many people have been going to MikePence2024.com since that day back in June, have been even making a dollar contribution to get us on the stage.
And I’m sure we’re going to be there.
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
