Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence told a crowd of a couple hundred Americans gathered in Mason City, Iowa that with the right leadership Americans can see a more prosperous and secure future for Americans today and for future generations.
Pence took questions from the audience, assuring voters that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other Republicans at the national and state levels “can restore this country at home and abroad.”
One Minnesota woman in the audience said of her home state, “It’s liberal Minnesota and even there people are waking up, it’s fantastic.” She then asked Pence what the administration would do to improve the Veterans Administration and the care for veterans.
Pence took a moment to recognize the mall stabbing that occurred Saturday night in Minnesota, the perpetrator of which has been claimed by Islamic terror group ISIS as a “soldier of the Islamic State.”
He then spoke of the 10-point plan to reform the VA that Trump laid out at one of the first speeches Pence ever attended with him, held at the VFW. “While we’re gonna reform the VA and we’re gonna preserve the VA, we’re also gonna make sure that if a veteran walks in the door and can’t get world class health care in real time, we’re gonna make it possible for that veteran to walk across the street and get private healthcare on the taxpayer dime.”
Responding to another audience member, Pence said, “There wasn’t really time to talk about it today, about the avalanche of corruption that’s flowing out of the years of the Clinton Foundation and during her years as Secretary of State, and I’ve only got another about half hour here, so I really couldn’t get through all of it in that.” He said the Trump administration will have the “highest standards of integrity in the highest office in the land.”
A young man from Omaha, Nebraska asked, “How big is that wall?”
Pence answered, “Bigger than that right there, Nathan,” as he pointed into the audience. “As big as it needs to be,” Pence continued, adding, “Big enough and Mexico’s gonna pay for it.”
DesMoines Register photojournalist Kelsey Kremer posted photos of the event:
Pence told the audience that “It wasn’t hard to say yes” and sign on to campaign as Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate, “because we got the chance to get to know Donald Trump and his family before the phone call came. We actually spent time with them as a family and got to meet their kids.” He spoke of a saying in Indiana that he ascribes to the Trump family: “They’re good people.” Pence said Trump’s energy and drive “ultimately comes out of a love for this country.”
“The truth is my story and his story have some similarities,” said Pence, who spoke of their respective grandfathers who both immigrated to America. He said both he and Trump were raised with the principal that “to whom much is given, much will be required.”
“I always tell people other than a whole lot of zeros, Donald Trump and I have a lot in common,” said Pence. “What we have in common though is a belief in the American Dream.”
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