Vice President Mike Pence is looking for a middle ground approach in how he responds to ongoing protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd, Politico reports.
As people nationwide call for anti-police brutality measures to be put in place after Floyd, a black man, was killed by a white police officer, Pence is figuring out how to be supportive of President Donald Trump while sending out his own message to people asking for ways to fix a divided nation.
Trump has repeatedly called for a “law and order” approach to ending any protests that have turned violent and destructive. Pence has backed the president’s call for a strong response to stop rioting and looting. But he does so with a softer message that states the purpose of the protests.
Approaching the topic of system racism gently hasn't always been Pence’s approach. During a 2016 campaign stop in Colorado Springs, an African American bishop asked the soon-to-be vice president a question.
“How can you personally reunite a racially splintered nation?” the bishop asked. The question came two days after police officers fatally shot a man, which caused protests to erupt in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Pence said it was a challenging time to be in law enforcement and that talks about “institutional racism and institutional bias” should be “set aside.” During the campaign, he supported Trump's references to the "Blue Lives Matter" movement.
Politico asked whether Pence still stands by his previous comments.
Spokesman Devin O’Malley said in an email that statements the vice president made during a law enforcement roundtable on Monday were a better representation of “where he is on the issue currently.”
“We have always been in the business of making a more perfect union, and we are going to be about that now,” Pence said during Monday’s event.
Balancing Trump’s strong position on a topic with his own approach is not new for Pence, officials close to the vice president told Politico.
“This situation is no different from an ordinary day for Mike Pence,” a former senior administration official told Politico.
As Trump is outspoken on the topics related to the protests, Pence has remained quiet. He has reached out privately to black conservative leaders for their insight, Politico reports.
He let Trump have his photo-op moment holding a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church last week.
“It’s Pence being Pence,” a senior administration official told Politico. “It was a presidential moment, a moment for him to be out there alone.”
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