The Daily Signal - Pence Pledges to ‘Clean House’ at the Justice Department

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

The Daily Signal's Tyler O'Neil sat down with former Vice President Mike Pence, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead. Pence pledged to "clean house" at the top of the Department of Justice, firing the entire leadership in the wake of multiple scandals including Russiagate, the Hunter Biden probe, and the FBI targeting of "radical-traditional Catholics." Pence spoke at The Gathering, an event organized by radio host Erick Erickson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Tyler O'Neill. I'm managing editor at The Daily Signal, and I'm honored to be joined by Mike Pence, former governor of Indiana, former vice president and a candidate for the 24 Republican presidential nomination. Great to be with you, Tyler. Thanks so much. Thanks for all the Daily Signal does every day. Yeah, thanks so much for joining me. Mike, you just released an ambitious plan to curb the federal government and return much of its power to the states. How would that plan decrease the spending that we've seen cause so much inflation? Well, actually, Tyler, people can go to Mike Pence-2020.com and see that this is the third policy platform that we've unveiled. I'm someone who believes that ideas have consequences. And as we vie for the Republican nomination, I want people to understand what our vision is, to tackle inflation, to unleash American energy. But I really believe the time has come for us to restore and revive.

federalism in America. Maybe it's that I was a governor, right? I served in Congress before that. I was vice president, but I understand the vital role that states have played in the life of the nation, but I also think over maybe the last 75 years, we've seen more consolidation of power and control in Washington, D.C.

And that's just not what the founders intended. They intended these states to be laboratories of innovation and reform. And I think throughout the Constitution, you see the principles of a limited federal government. And then the 10th Amendment, I believe, was almost like an exclamation point at the end of the Bill of Rights that essentially said,

if you didn't get it yet, we're gonna say it one more time. The power's not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states and to the people. And so I think, shutting down the Federal Department of Education. Let's transfer resources and control for housing and welfare and education, all back to the states and say, why don't you in your home state

redesign these programs around ways that will actually improve people's lives, particularly people that are struggling on that first rung of the American dream? And I think it's an idea whose time has come. And how does it address Obamacare? I mean, that was one of the things, many conservatives were hoping that the Trump administration would address and really put to bed, repeal it. And we saw the repeal effort die on the floor,

but this plan, I think, addresses Obamacare. It does. You know, we came within one vote on the Senate, one thumb down, of being able to repeal and replace Obamacare. And it was, it's, I'm never going to give up on that fight. And that's why, in the center of this program is we take the bill that literally was on the Senate floor,

which would have blocked granted Obamacare dollars back to the states and allow the states then to innovate and craft, you know, health insurance coverage in ways that will benefit people in their states and bring ideas like health savings accounts, consumer direct in health care. But it also eviscerates all the mandates in Obamacare as well. We just came that, close Tyler but but I'm never gonna get up we I was there when we were fighting against Obamacare I was a house Republican leader at the time I I had to live under it and fight against it when I was a governor's native Indiana we came close to repealing it but I really do believe that it that that that should I have the privilege of being president of the United States that rescinding

the Obamacare mandates and block granting those resources back to the states an idea whose time has come And we lived through a lot of abuses of power under the COVID pandemic. How would you restructure government on emergency powers, the NIH, the CDC, in the wake of that? Well, let me say, I'm incredibly proud of what the American people accomplished during the worst pandemic in 100 years. I mean, when I was tapped to lead the White House task force, we hadn't had a single fatality, but in a matter of days, We were informed that we would see this pandemic strike, as it already begun to in major cities. We took efforts early on to make sure that our hospitals were not overwhelmed to make sure that we had the resources to give people the health care that we'd want any member of our family to have.

The challenge we had was we saw many Democrat-led states then take, you know, what were temporary measures, designed to give us a chance to, you know, spin up testing from a standing start to make sure we had resources at our hospitals and supplies and ventilators. And they went on to shut down schools. They went on to shut down their economies over long periods of time and used the pandemic as a reason for that. I think we've got to, I think we've got to, I think we've got to seriously rethink, you know, the lessons of the COVID. pandemic and it all has to be grounded in freedom. We have to begin that. When I was when I was leading the White House task force, you know, we fought to keep meat packing plants open. We fought

for the right of churches to continue to meet and to convene and all along the way we're running up against liberal Democrat governors around the country that were using the heavy hand of government to essentially repress freedom. That can't happen. again. Of course, once the Biden administration took effect, that all turned into mandates, you know, vaccine mandates, which some of which still survived to this day with regard to health care workers. One suppression of disinformation. Well, again, of course that's a larger issue. We're doing. Thank God for the daily signal because, you know, to see essentially the what was the collusion in the 2020 campaign between big tech suppressing stories about Hunter Biden,

and the Biden family in the days running up, as well as holding back information from the American people. I remember I wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal after the initial wave of COVID had crested, and the media was still engaged in massive kind of hysteria with the American people that was fueling a lot of these authoritarian actions by state governments. I wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal in May

and encourage people with the progress we've made and told people we'd made great progress and we were ready for whatever would come ahead. I was pilloried for it because I'd cast an optimistic view and a view that we could, in fact, open up the country again and we could begin to move our country forward.

So the free flow of information, ensuring that the American people have the broadest range of information, but our approach in the future, because this will happen again, I mean, this has, it's been 100 years, but it will come again. I think we need to have a, I think we need to have a national response that is grounded in the principles of freedom and as president. I'll work to define that.

When we talked briefly about suppression of conservative views of your own speech, you know, criticism of your own writing, but we've seen the government also weaponized against conservatives. particularly the FBI citing the Southern Poverty Law Center to go after traditional Catholics. How would you change the way some of these agencies are structured, perhaps? How would you address the way that government has been weaponized against conservatives? Well, if I become president of the United States, we're going to clean house on the entire top floor of the Justice Department.

Let's be clear. The American people have lost confidence. in equal treatment under the law. And I understand that. I lived through the Mueller investigation. I was questioned throughout that and required to retain private counsel of my own incurred a half a million dollars in legal fees

for what we now know was a complete hoax, all grounded in opposition research and fueled by FBI agents that literally falsified official records and have still not been held to account. And then we lived, through the impeachment of the president over a phone call and all the swirling accusations around that. But it's even been more troubling since we left office to see what appears

for many Americans to be a double standard. I mean, the relentless pursuit of the president on a range of issues, the former president. But for five years, the lack of interest at the Justice Department and looking into very serious allegations concerning Hunter Biden and also the Biden family broadly. My hope is that's starting to shift with the sweetheart plea deal going away, that I think that gave hope to people across the country that maybe we're getting back. But it's just going to take a, it's just going to take cleaning house at the Justice Department at the highest levels.

Look, I was on the Judiciary Committee for 10 years. I know how it all works. And I believe my heart of hearts that we can people the Justice Department at the highest levels and the FBI at the highest levels with men and women who are seen across the political spectrum as people of integrity devoted to the fair administration of justice. And that's what we'll do to restore confidence in our justice system. So I think we're running short on time, but I want to do a lightning round of real quick questions and hopefully real quick answers. So I'm going to ask quick questions and see what you say.

Yeah. So how about should we audit the Fed? We should audit the Fed, but more important than that, we should end the dual mandate at the Fed. The Fed ought to be working on protecting our dollar. We ought to require presidents and Congress to achieve full full. employment. Awesome. Would you abolish any federal department or how many would you abolish? You know, take a number, get ready, look at Mike Pence, 2024.com. Start with the Federal Department of Education. Shut it down. Send all those resources back to the states. Next up, EPA, shut it down,

and allow the proper functions of the EPA to move to other branches of government. Who's your favorite Republican in Congress? You know, I have great friends in Congress. I served there for 12 years, and I admire many of them. But I will tell you, Jim Jordan of Ohio has always been my great fan. He's a man of faith. He's a man of courage, and to see the way he's been fighting for equal treatment under the law. Fighting for the truth has been very inspiring to me. Who's your favorite Democrat in Congress? That's a tougher list to get to. But I was just, you know, look, when I was in the Congress, I actually had

good cordial relations with some of the most liberal members of Congress because they knew I was serious about my values and my conservative agenda, and I knew they were serious about theirs. And I think the time has come for us to seek to restore a threshold of civility and public life so that we can begin to have a dialogue. Look, national debt the size of our nation's economy. China's on the move, wars raging in Eastern Europe. There's steady assault on the liberties and values of families in this country. We need to create an environment where we can at least have the possibility of finding common ground.

And if I'm president in the United States, we will. So which Democrat can you find common ground with? Well, is there one in particular that you like? Well, you know, Joe Manchin and I have always had a good conversant relationship. I see him. I mean, he's not a conservative like me, but I have a sense that he's someone. that's interested in moving our country forward. Well, Mike Pence, thank you so much for joining me,

and best of luck here at the gathering. Tyler, O'Neill, great to be on The Daily Signal, and good to see you too. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Bowie and Kate Trinco. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha O'Sheras.

Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.