Pence to Make Remarks Friday Slamming ‘Apologists for Putin’ in Veiled Shot at Trump: Report
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Former Vice President Mike Pence reportedly intends to fire a tacit shot at former President Donald Trump at a fundraiser on Friday night.
Pence will speak in New Orleans at the annual Republican National Committee spring retreat.
A guest list reportedly includes a number of high-profile Republicans, including Trump himself.
It is not clear if Trump will attend the event, but Washington Post political reporter Josh Dawsey is reporting Pence will.
Dawsey took to Twitter on Friday afternoon, where he claimed to have obtained an advance copy of the remarks Pence will deliver.
He reported Pence will call on the GOP to leave the 2020 election results behind, and will say, “We cannot win by fighting yesterday’s battles, or by relitigating the past.”
Pence will call on GOP to stop fighting 2020 election results in speech to party’s top donors tonight. “We cannot win by fighting yesterday’s battles, or by relitigating the past.”
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) March 4, 2022
Dawsey later reported Pence will utter a line that is almost certainly about Trump, who has called Russian President Vladimir Putin “smart” and “savvy” in recent weeks.
“More excerpts of Pence’s speech as prepared for the party’s top donors in New Orleans tonight,” Dawsey reported.
He noted Pence will say, “There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin.”
More excerpts of Pence’s speech as prepared for the party’s top donors in New Orleans tonight: “There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin.”
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) March 4, 2022
Pence first broke with Trump publicly last month in Florida while addressing the Federalist Society in Orlando.
At that event, Pence pushed back on repeated claims from Trump that he could have overturned the 2020 election by recognizing “alternate electors” as the Electoral College results were certified:
There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress, that I possess unilateral authority to reject Electoral College votes. And I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election.
But President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs the American people, and the American people alone. And frankly, there’s no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.
