Pence digs at Trump’s 2020 lie: ‘elections are about the future’ – live

Pence digs at Trump over 2020 obsession

Mike Pence has been taking shots at his former boss Donald Trump during an appearance at the Young America’s Foundation conference in Washington DC this morning, urging his audience of conservative students to look to the future, not backwards.

The former vice-president, who is mulling his own run for the presidency in 2024, is touting a “freedom agenda” which he says is forward focused.

Mike Pence at the Young America’s Foundation’s conference on Tuesday
Mike Pence at the Young America’s Foundation’s conference on Tuesday Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

His mentions of Trump by name were limited to claiming credit for their administration’s perceived achievements. But the former president’s ongoing obsession with his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden is clearly on Pence’s mind:

Some people may choose to focus on the past. But elections are about the future. And I believe conservatives must focus on the future to win back America.

We can’t afford to take our eyes off the road in front of us.

His comments appeared more tame than previous attacks on his one-time boss, whose supporters wanted to hang Pence during the deadly 6 January Capitol riot as Trump pressed him to refuse to certify Biden’s victory.

But with the former running mates appearing to move in opposite directions, highlighted by their backing of rival candidates in Arizona’s Republican primary for state governor, Pence is keen to assert he is the politician looking to the future.

I came today not to look backwards but to look forward. The truth of the matter is, now more than ever, conservatives need to be focused on the challenges Americans are facing today and offer bold and positive agenda solutions for the future.

The conservative movement has always been built on the notion that ideas have consequences. Conservatism is bigger than any one moment, any one election, or any one person. It’s always been about ideas.

Referring to the cancelation of his scheduled speech at the Heritage Foundation last night, due to a thunderstorm, Pence said:

More than ever, we need to lead America with a freedom agenda focused on the future. God must have had different plans for today. For he must have decided that a talk about the future… should be given to the rising generation.

His hour-long speech ended with one final dig:

I truly believe elections are about the future. That is absolutely essential… that we don’t give way to the temptation to look back.

We’ll be watching Trump’s response this afternoon when he speaks at the America First Agenda summit, also in Washington.

Key events

David Smith

David Smith

After watching Mike Pence take shots at Donald Trump’s 2020 election obsession this morning, we’ll be looking out for the former president’s response this afternoon when he addresses the America First Agenda Summit in Washington DC.

My colleague David Smith has this preview of Trump’s first return to Washington since leaving office:

Mr Trump is going (back) to Washington. The former president will return to the nation’s capital on Tuesday, marking his first visit to the city since leaving office last year.

Trump will deliver the keynote address at a summit held by the America First Policy Institute, a thinktank formed by some of his former White House advisers.

AFPI’s leaders have said the America First Agenda Summit will focus on the Republican party’s plans to combat inflation and improve the US immigration system, but that agenda is unlikely to stop Trump from recirculating his lies about the 2020 election.

The summit comes less than a week after the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection held its second primetime hearing, which focused on Trump’s inaction during the deadly Capitol attack. The committee outlined how Trump refused for hours to intervene and instead watched television coverage of the violence, even as some of his closest advisers pleaded with him to take action.

Trump is expected to confront the committee’s accusations in his Tuesday speech, as he has remained determined to criticize those who did not support his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference in Nashville, Tennessee, last month, Trump again attacked Mike Pence, his former vice-president, for refusing to interfere with the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory on January 6.

“Mike Pence had a chance to be great. He had a chance to be frankly historic,” Trump said. “But just like [former Attorney General] Bill Barr and the rest of these weak people, Mike – and I say it sadly because I like him – but Mike did not have the courage to act.”

Read the full story:

Ted Cruz, the Republican Texas senator, has endorsed fellow rightwinger Harriet Hageman for Congress in Wyoming in a direct challenge to incumbent Liz Cheney.

“Harriet will be a rock-ribbed conservative congresswoman who will always defend the constitution,” Cruz says in a fawning statement.

“She knows the importance of standing up for individual constitutional rights and fighting back against the federal government.”

Cheney, a long-serving Republican congress member, has drawn criticism from Donald Trump supporters such as Cruz for serving as vice-chair of the January 6 House panel investigation the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

Wyoming’s primary takes place on 16 August. A Casper Star Tribune poll last week showed Cheney trailing Hageman by 22%.

Pence digs at Trump over 2020 obsession

Mike Pence has been taking shots at his former boss Donald Trump during an appearance at the Young America’s Foundation conference in Washington DC this morning, urging his audience of conservative students to look to the future, not backwards.

The former vice-president, who is mulling his own run for the presidency in 2024, is touting a “freedom agenda” which he says is forward focused.

Mike Pence at the Young America’s Foundation’s conference on Tuesday
Mike Pence at the Young America’s Foundation’s conference on Tuesday Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

His mentions of Trump by name were limited to claiming credit for their administration’s perceived achievements. But the former president’s ongoing obsession with his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden is clearly on Pence’s mind:

Some people may choose to focus on the past. But elections are about the future. And I believe conservatives must focus on the future to win back America.

We can’t afford to take our eyes off the road in front of us.

His comments appeared more tame than previous attacks on his one-time boss, whose supporters wanted to hang Pence during the deadly 6 January Capitol riot as Trump pressed him to refuse to certify Biden’s victory.

But with the former running mates appearing to move in opposite directions, highlighted by their backing of rival candidates in Arizona’s Republican primary for state governor, Pence is keen to assert he is the politician looking to the future.

I came today not to look backwards but to look forward. The truth of the matter is, now more than ever, conservatives need to be focused on the challenges Americans are facing today and offer bold and positive agenda solutions for the future.

The conservative movement has always been built on the notion that ideas have consequences. Conservatism is bigger than any one moment, any one election, or any one person. It’s always been about ideas.

Referring to the cancelation of his scheduled speech at the Heritage Foundation last night, due to a thunderstorm, Pence said:

More than ever, we need to lead America with a freedom agenda focused on the future. God must have had different plans for today. For he must have decided that a talk about the future… should be given to the rising generation.

His hour-long speech ended with one final dig:

I truly believe elections are about the future. That is absolutely essential… that we don’t give way to the temptation to look back.

We’ll be watching Trump’s response this afternoon when he speaks at the America First Agenda summit, also in Washington.

Good morning politics blog readers. It’s shaping up to be a busy day in Congress, with Senate Democrats working hard on Republican colleagues to build enough support to pass the Marriage Equality Act by the end of the week.

With the chamber’s August break looming, Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is keen to advance the same-sex marriage bill that cleared the House last week with the backing of 47 Republicans, and on to Joe Biden’s desk.

But although a handful of Senate Republicans have affirmed their support, it remains to be seen if Democrats in the equally divided chamber can reach the 60-vote threshold they need to force a final vote.

Here’s what else we’re following today:

  • Donald Trump returns to Washington DC this afternoon for the first time since leaving office last year. His address to the rightwing America First Agenda Summit is ostensibly policy focused as he mulls another run for the presidency in 2024.
  • The 6 January House panel investigating Trump’s efforts to subvert his 2020 election defeat continues its work behind closed doors, following a lively series of public hearings and, as we learned last night, potentially damning testimony from former vice-president Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short.
  • Joe Biden, who announced yesterday he’s “feeling great” as he recovers from Covid-19, has a busy schedule. He’s meeting virtually with the head of South Korea’s SK group, which is investing $22bn in American industry, and will attend (virtually) House celebrations of the 32nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
  • The Senate will vote this morning, after a weather delay yesterday, on the Chips Act, providing $52bn for US companies manufacturing computer chips, plus tax credits and other incentives.
  • The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, will give her daily briefing at 3.15pm, beside Biden’s senior economic adviser Brian Deese.
source: theguardian.com