Former Vice President Mike Pence met with a bunch of Republican congressmembers Wednesday on Capitol Hill to map out his imaginative and prescient of a Home GOP agenda ought to the occasion take the decrease chamber majority in November.
Pence detailed his “freedom agenda” to a room of dozens of members of the Republican Research Committee (RSC), of which he as soon as served as chair earlier than turning into Indiana governor and later vp.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), a fellow Hoosier and the present RSC chair, spoke to Breitbart Information in an interview after attending the personal RSC occasion. Banks mentioned political leaders like Pence, in addition to others within the potential 2024 enviornment equivalent to Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) or former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, have been drawn to assembly with the large 168-member caucus that’s the “coronary heart and soul of the Republican Convention.”
The RSC is “constructing the roadmap for what Republicans must do to not simply win again the bulk however to avoid wasting our nation and preserve the bulk for a very long time to return,” Banks mentioned, including, “And our voters and Republican leaders, all of us are hungry for management of substance, and the RSC is offering it in contrast to ever earlier than, and particularly on this necessary second.”
Thanks to former #RSC Chairman Vice President @Mike_Pence for becoming a member of us this morning 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/ffl4lIwtxN
— RSC (@RepublicanStudy) July 20, 2022
Pence’s look comes as murmurs about former President Donald Trump making an early announcement for a 3rd bid for the presidency ramp up, and as many within the media, such because the New York Occasions and CNN, stay hyperfocused on Pence and Trump’s relationship because it pertains to 2020 controversies about alleged voter fraud and the January 6 Capitol riot.
“This morning’s assembly was not about January 6. It didn’t even come up aside from one remark that’s already been leaked,” Banks clarified, in reference to a number of stories that Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) stood up in the course of the occasion and thanked Pence for “defending” the “Structure” in January 2021.
Banks mentioned of the Roy remark, “That change in our assembly this morning was a blip. It was very small. It was like one second of an hour-long dialogue about our agenda after we get the bulk again.”
Banks mentioned Pence highlighted his 28-page freedom agenda, which Politico first revealed in March. The bold three-pronged plan lays out insurance policies regarding American tradition, alternative, and management, and covers practically each high concern, from border safety to power prices to crime, schooling, abortion, labor, taxation, manufacturing, and extra.
A Pence adviser quipped to Breitbart Information of the plan that it doesn’t embrace any tax will increase, a remark that comes after Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), the chair of the marketing campaign arm for Senate Republicans, launched an 11-point plan with a controversial tax improve provision.
Scott’s plan was additionally criticized by Senate Majority Chief Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as pointless on the time of its launch.
Banks mentioned that in an “apparent distinction to the Senate,” Pence on Wednesday drove dwelling the purpose to Home lawmakers that working on an agenda creates a “mandate” to advance that agenda. “In the event you run on nothing, you’ve gotten a mandate to do nothing,” Banks mentioned, including that the distinction with the Senate will turn into even “extra apparent when Chief McCarthy rolls out our Home Republican agenda,” which McCarthy plans to do in September.
Pence has remained energetic within the political scene since departing the White Home, campaigning for candidates, attending talking engagements, and visiting the early major states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
Pence’s assembly with the RSC comes simply after the previous vp appeared at a gathering Tuesday night with a number of of McCarthy’s “younger weapons” congressional candidates, and simply earlier than he was set to ship a speech about post-Roe America in South Carolina Wednesday night and attend marketing campaign occasions in Arizona on Friday.
Pence, who’s fervently pro-life and pro-family, spoke Wednesday throughout his speech to Florence Baptist Temple concerning the “new chapter in American historical past” following Roe being “relegated to the ash heap of historical past the place it belongs,” in response to a duplicate of his remarks.
On Friday in Arizona, Pence will marketing campaign for Karrin Taylor Robson, on the identical day and in the identical state that Trump will maintain a rally for Robson’s high opponent, Kari Lake. The competing occasions will create a intently watched split-screen second illustrative of the proxy wars enjoying out forward of 2024 between Trump and numerous different GOP factions.
Pence staying so strategically concerned and influential has perpetuated hypothesis that Pence may run — probably in opposition to Trump — within the 2024 presidential major, however the Pence adviser mentioned the previous vp is laser-focused on the 2022 midterms, which largely dictate how Republicans will fare in 2024.
Banks mentioned Pence solely praised the Trump agenda and the Trump-Pence administrative pursuits in the course of the RSC assembly.
Banks additionally famous the RSC plans to work with Trump himself on plans for advancing Trump’s America First agenda and broke the information Friday to Breitbart Information that the RSC would the truth is be assembly with Trump at his residence in Bedminster, New Jersey, in early August.
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Observe her on Twitter at @asholiver.
