Politicians & Pundits: Mike Pence

Remember Mike Pence’s Role In Flynn Guilty Plea

Amidst the most recent flood of indictments and guilty pleas coming out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, the American people must remember that Vice President Mike Pence is inextricably entangled in this firestorm.

Here’s how– former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is expected to plead guilty in the Mueller case for lying to the FBI about the nature of his numerous contacts with the Russian Ambassador during the Trump transition. And who was in charge of the Trump transition? Mike Pence.

As Vice President-elect, Mike Pence chaired the Trump transition. American Bridge previously uncovered a document signed by Mike Pence through a Freedom of Information Request explicitly stating he is responsible for contacts made by Trump officials, like Michael Flynn, during the transition period. 

“This morning’s revelation about Michael Flynn is just the tip of the iceberg,” said American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah. “Michael Flynn acted outside of the law […]

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Shot/Chaser: Trump Directed Mike Flynn To Contact Russia

SHOT: February 16, 2017

White House Press Conference:  Reporter Question:  Did you direct Mike Flynn to discuss the sanctions with the Russian ambassador?

THE PRESIDENT:  No, I didn’t.  No, I didn’t.  [inaudible]

THE PRESIDENT:  Excuse me — no, I fired him because of what he said to Mike Pence, very simple.  Mike was doing his job.  He was calling countries and his counterparts.  So it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it.  I would have directed him to do it if I thought he wasn’t doing it.  I didn’t direct him but I would have directed him because that’s his job. And it came out that way — and, in all fairness, I watched Dr. Charles Krauthammer the other night say he was doing his job.  And I agreed with him.  And since then I’ve watched many other people say that. No, I didn’t direct him, but […]

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WATCH: Matt Lauer Calls Pence Out For Defending Trump’s Support for neo-Nazis, KKK

After Mike Pence repeatedly dodged, ducked, deflected and danced around questions about Donald Trump’s defense of neo-Nazis, KKK, and other violent white supremacists who rioted in Charlottesville, Today Show host Matt Lauer called out the Vice President for continuing to defend the indefensible.  Lauer noted Trump’s comments have been denounced by Republicans, business leaders, and military officers — nearly everyone except for the Vice President, further illustrating that there’s no daylight between Trump and Pence. 

“There’s no daylight between Trump and Pence, particularly when it comes to turning a blind eye to white supremacists,” said American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah.  “Trump’s racism is officially defining his administration, destroying his legislative agenda, and it exposing Mike Pence’s own moral failings along the way.”

Watch the full segment here.

Lauer: Let me ask you about other items in the news. Mr. Vice President, have you ever met a neo-Nazi or […]

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Trump and Pence Obamacare sabotage leads to 57% premium hike in Iowa

​”Make no mistake: this 57% spike in premiums is a direct result of Donald Trump and Mike Pence sabotaging the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Now Iowa families are going to suffer the consequences,” said American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates. “America’s doctors, healthcare providers, health insurers, business leaders, and patient advocates have urged the Trump Administration to end the needless financial distress that this chaos is causing for middle class Americans – but every day Donald Trump and Mike Pence show nothing but indifference to this suffering.”

Des Moines Register: Iowa’s only remaining Obamacare insurer seeks another big rate hike
Jason Clayworth, jclayworth@dmreg.com

Iowans who buy their own health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchange would see their rates increase nearly 57 percent next year under a revised rate proposed Wednesday.

The proposal is 13 percentage points higher than previously was estimated by Medica, the one remaining carrier selling individual policies in Iowa […]

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Pence Plays Coy On Russian Collusion, But His Denial Still Doesn’t Hold Up 

Mike Pence tried to play coy when CNN asked the Vice President about communication between the Trump campaign and Russia.  But his evasive, half-hearted denials don’t hold up to scrutiny. The facts that have surfaced about contacts between Trump officials and Russia directly contradict the White House’s ever changing rhetoric, and the Vice President’s denials are impossible to believe. More likely is that he’s knee-deep in the scandal just like other members of the administration, he knows this, and now he’s trying to distance himself.

“Vice President Pence can’t escape the Russia scandal that is rapidly tainting every member of the Trump campaign and White House. Pence can try to brush the evidence aside, but the fact is that he was cheering when Wikileaks published emails stolen by Russian hackers, and as head of the Trump transition, he turned a blind eye to warnings about Michael Flynn. When all […]

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A few other things Mike Pence “denied” and “rejected”

Vice President Mike Pence has a habit of denying and rejecting things right before they are proven true. This weekend, he and his allies threw a fit when the New York Times reported on Pence’s “shadow campaign” ahead of the 2020 election. Pence and his team quickly flew into cleanup mode, blasting the Times as “fake news” and characterizing the article’s allegations as “disgraceful and offensive” — in other words, ensuring that Trump would see hundreds of headlines registering Pence’s forceful “rejection” and “denials” of the report.

Given how nervous Pence seemed about stamping down rumors — before Trump catches on to Pence’s months of well-documented wining and dining GOP CEOs and megadonors — one can’t help but wonder whether Pence has something to hide.

So with that, here are other things Pence has “rejected” and “denied,” despite a preponderance of evidence.

 


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It’s Not Just Abortion: The Far-Reaching Conservative War On Women’s Health

research •

Summary

Attempts to restrict women’s access to legal and safe abortion is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the conservative assault on women’s health care. Conservatives, particularly the increasingly right-wing House Republicans who rode into the majority on a Tea Party wave, have also sought to undermine and defund a variety of what ought to be non-divisive women’s health care services. Over the last year or so, conservatives have ramped up the war on women’s health care, including access to contraceptives, preventive services like cancer screenings, and programs that promote maternal and childhood health.

Title X: Birth Control And Cancer Screenings

House GOP Repeatedly Tried To Zero Out Title X Funding

In The 2011 Spending Bill, House Republicans Tried To Completely Eliminate A Program That Provides Family Planning And Cancer Screenings For Low-Income Women. From the National Women’s Law Center: “The bill to fund – and de-fund – the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, H.R. 1, passed the House on February 19, 2011, on a party-line vote (all but three Republicans voting voted for the bill; all Democrats voting voted against it). […] H.R. 1 eliminates funding for the Title X program, which for more than 40 years has provided family planning services, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and other preventive health care to low-income women in need. Title X-funded health centers serve more than five million low-income women and men each year, and six in 10 women who obtain health care from a family planning center consider it to be their primary source of health care.” [National Women’s Law Center, 2/23/11]

Read more after the jump.