Pence super PAC launches Iowa ad attacking Trump as an ‘apologist for thugs and dictators’

July 11, 2023

A super PAC aligned with former Vice President Mike Pence has launched a new ad in Iowa accusing former President Donald Trump of “being an apologist for thugs and dictators,” reports the Des Moines Register.

The ad, launched on Thursday, July 6, by Committed to America, a group backing Pence, features clips of Trump shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“America doesn’t stand with thugs and dictators. We confront them,” a narrator says in the ad as the footage of Trump plays. “Or at least we used to.”

SuppCommitted to America is spending $150,000 to run the ad statewide in Iowa on Fox News and digital platforms for ten days, Communications Strategist Michael Ricci said in an email.

Asked about the ad by reporters on Thursday evening, Pence said “I never had any illusions about Vladimir Putin.” He pointed to the 2016 vice presidential debate, when he called Putin a “small and bullying leader.”

“The president had his own approach to dealing with some of these dictators around the world, and I’ll leave him to defend that,” Pence said.

Trump has faced criticism for calling Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “genius” and “pretty savvy.”

Pence went on to praise the Trump-Pence administration’s record on military matters—arguing he’d take on authoritarian leaders as president.

“If I have the privilege of being president of the United States I’m going to continue to take the same tough stand on the likes of Putin and Xi and others,” Pence said. “But it all begins with renewing American strength and making sure we have a military fitted to the times and that the world knows that we’ll defend our people and that we’ll defend our interests around the world.”

Pence has separated himself from Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the 2024 presidential race by pledging to support Ukraine’s military in the war against Russia. Last week, he visited Ukraine and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

DeSantis has said supporting Ukraine is not vital to U.S. interests.

“While I have a difference with the former president, and frankly with other candidates in this field, I think it’s absolutely essential as leader of the free world that we continue to give the Ukrainian military the support they need to repel the Russian invasion,” Pence said. “If Vladimir Putin were able to overrun Ukraine, I have no doubt that someday soon he would cross a NATO border that we would be required to send our armed forces into harm’s way to defend.”

He added that he believes “China’s watching all of this very closely.”

Pence trails both Trump DeSantis in polling of the 2024 Republican presidential primary race.

Pence wrapped up a three-day campaign swing through western Iowa on Thursday, where he marched in a 4th of July parade in Urbandale and took questions from Iowans in Boone, Sioux Center, Le Mars, Sioux City, Holstein, and Neola.

Trump is set to hold a rally in Council Bluffs on Friday.

Research contact: @DesMoinesRegister

September 26, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle on Wednesday, September 25—fielding questions on her economic agenda, former President Donald Trump’s economic plans, and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), reports The Hill

.The MSNBC interview was a friendly forum for the vice president, who has been under pressure to ramp up her media presence. Harris sat down with Ruhle in Pittsburgh, following an economic-focused speech in which she laid out a framework for her manufacturing agenda.

Here are five takeaways from Harris’s interview on MSNBC:

Harris lays out pricey agenda

Much of the interview was spent talking about the economy and involved Harris outlining her agenda. Her “opportunity economy” involves a housing plan to help first-time homebuyers, a child tax plan that involves expanding credits to families, and a plan to boost small businesseswith tax deductions for entrepreneurs, among other proposals.

“If you are hardworking, if you have the dreams and the ambitions and the aspirations I believe you do, you’re in my plan,” she said.

When it comes to how to pay for some programs, Harris reiterated that she would not raise taxes on Americans making less than $400,000—maintaining a pillar of President Joe Biden’s tax plan—but that corporations should pay their “fair share” in taxes.

Much of Harris’s economic agenda would need congressional approval, particularly when it comes to tax policy. That would make it an uphill battle, should Congress see a Republican majority; but also if either or both chambers are closely split between parties.

Ruhle questioned the vice president on polling that shows likely voters think Trump is better on the economy. Harris recently closed the gap with Trump on the economy in one survey — an Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll that found Harris and Trump with equal support on the issue.

“Donald Trump left us with the worst economy since the Great Depression,” Harris said, citing data that about 200,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during the Trump years.

Walz pick was gut decision

Toward the end of the interview, Ruhle asked Harris when was the last time she made a “gut decision,” given that decisions made by presidents take “extraordinary instinct and guts.”

“When’s the last time you had to make a gut decision? This here is very prescribed. It’s very controlled,” Ruhle asked, referring to the interview setup.

“The biggest gut decision I made most recently was to choose my running mate,” Harris responded, referring to her decision to pick Walz to run as her vice president. “There were lots of good, incredible candidates, and ultimately that came down to a gut decision.”

Harris picked Walz in August, just more than a month after she announced her presidential bid. The governor emerged as a dark horse contender for the slot just before Harris made her choice, being selected over other more high-profile names Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly (D) ,who were largely viewed for weeks as the favorites for the position.

Harris knocks Trump on tariffs

Harris bashed Trump for his suggestion to place tariffs on foreign companies, which he has laid out repeatedly on the campaign trail.

“Part of it is, you don’t just throw around the idea of just tariffs across the board, and that’s part of the problem with Donald Trump,” Harris said when Ruhle asked about the former president’s plans to expand tariffs.

“He’s just not very serious about how he thinks about some of these issues,” Harris added. “One must be serious and have a real plan that’s not just about some talking point ending in an exclamation at a political rally.”

Trump gave an economic-focused speech this week in Pennsylvania, during which he spoke about his plan to use tariffs, continuing to expand on his claims that he wants to expand the use of tariffs if he’s elected.

He also threatened Illinois-based John Deerewith massive tariffs on its products if it outsources some of its manufacturing to Mexico, as it has previously announced.

Harris defends opposition to U.S. Steel sale

Harris defended her opposition to Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel acquiring U.S. Steel, after Ruhle mentioned the potential consequences of blocking it.

U.S. Steel warned earlier this month that it may cut staff and move its headquarters from Pittsburgh, if the company’s planned sale falls apart. Nippon Steel announced it would acquire U.S. Steel in December—prompting outcry from lawmakers, including Biden and Trump, who argued the deal could undermine national security and industrial capacity.

“It’s most important that we maintain America’s ability to have American manufacturing [of] steel by American workers for a number of reasons,” Harris said, defending the opposition.

“There is not a new industry that I can imagine that is not going to require steel,” she added, noting, “And having American workers in an American company manufacturing that steel for those industries is going to be critically important.”

Ruhle interview is Harris’s deepest on policy

Harris’s interview with Ruhle went deeper into her proposed economic policies than any of the other media appearances and interviews she’s done to date as the Democratic nominee.

Ruhle questioned Harris, for example, on how she planned to pay for such proposals and how the federal government would cut through red tape to reach municipalities on matters such as the shortage of housing.

The vice president outlined incentives the federal government can create for communities to build more homes and provide transit. Harris maintains that such proposals could be paid for with an increase in corporate taxes but has not gotten into details about how such hikes could get through Congress.

“I know that we have to reduce the red tape and speed up what we need to do around building, and that is going to require working from the federal level with state and local governments,” she said.

Research contact: @thehill