Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday lauded House Speaker Mike Johnson for his "moral courage" in moving forward with a plan to vote on separate bills to provide assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific despite criticism from GOP hardliners and the potential threat of his ouster.
"Well, first let me not skip over the fact I think Speaker Mike Johnson is in a tough spot," Pence sad during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper.
"Look, it's a very narrow majority, and I think what the American people will witness here is nothing short of moral courage. Here Speaker Mike Johnson has decided to do what he believes is right and trust the American people with the outcome in this moment. And I commend him for that."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., have backed efforts to remove Johnson from the role after the House, with help from Democrats, on Friday advanced the foreign aid package that omitted border security provisions.
Pence, asked if he thought former President Donald Trump "played any role in the erosion of the Reagan ideology that you stand for," said: "I honestly believe the emergence of this new Republican isolationism ... is something that has come forth in the last three years, particularly with the disaster at our southern border, the record inflation, and the Russian invasion into Ukraine. I think you have many Republicans that are falling back to the notion that that we've got problems here at home, we can't solve every problem in the world.
"When the reality is that anyone that says that we can't secure our border, revive our economy, and be the leader of the free world has got a pretty small view of the greatest nation on earth. We've done both now for 75 years. We can do both again.
"And, in our administration I honestly believe we built up our military. We stood with our allies, stood up to our enemies. We didn't go looking for foreign entanglements, but when the moment presented itself, whether it's a fight against ISIS taking down Qassem Soleimani, cruise missiles into Syria, we were willing to use American force. And that's the opposite of isolationism. That's American leadership."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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