Former Vice President Mike Pence Friday made a rare TV appearance to rail against President Biden’s new push for COVID vaccine mandates as “unlike anything we’ve heard before.”
In his first television interview since leaving office, Pence suggested Biden’s tougher approach on requiring COVID vaccinations amounts to violating personal freedom.
The ex-veep also said it’s just not how a president is supposed to talk to the American people.
“To have the president of the United States say that he’s been patient, but his patience is wearing thin, that’s not how the American people expect to be spoken to by our elected leaders,” Pence told Fox News.
Pence told Biden to stick to gentle persuasion on vaccines and put down the presidential big stick.
“The president should simply continue, as we have done, to lead by example,” Pence said. “Encourage people to take the vaccine, as Karen and I did on national television back in December.”
It wasn’t clear if the last remark was intended at a veiled dig at former President Donald Trump, who got vaccinated in secret and did not even announce that he got the shot until the media reported it.
Biden hours earlier ordered American corporations with more than 100 employees to implement mandatory COVID vaccine programs, with only opt-outs for those willing to get undergo onerous testing. He also told all federal workers to get their shots ASAP or face possible firing, with only narrow exemptions for provable religious or health objections.
The speech dramatically raised the political stakes in Biden’s effort to end the pandemic, a battle that has been undermined by the refusal of many far right-wing Trump supporters and anti-vaxxers to get inoculated.
By using his lone recent TV appearance to take square aim at Biden’s vaccine mandates, Pence is signaling a readiness to lead GOP opposition on the issue. But some Democratic strategists welcome the Republican outrage over vaccine mandates, which they believe are broadly popular with voters, especially in well-educated suburbs that are trending blue.
Pence has largely remained out of the public eye since leaving office in January, making only occasional speeches at closely controlled conservative events.
The former veep still hopes to run for president in 2024 and he has enduring appeal to evangelical Christian conservatives, a pillar of today’s GOP. But his rocky relationship with Trump may be a deal-breaker for Republican primary voters.
Trump has regularly derided Pence for doing his constitutional duty by presiding over Congress as it confirmed Biden’s election on Jan. 6. Trump’s hardline MAGA supporters set up a gallows and openly threatened to assassinate him when they marauded through the Capitol.
The former president says he may run himself for president in 2024 and pointedly insists hasn’t committed tapping Pence as his potential running mate.
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