Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who Donald Trump formally introduced as his running mate on Saturday morning, lauded the presumptive GOP nominee as a strong leader who will bring his brand of "no-nonsense leadership" to Washington D.C., saying that he accepted Trump's offer because the stakes "could not be higher."
"Elections are about choices, and I also joined this ticket because the choice could not be more clear, the stakes could not be higher," Pence said in a brief speech, following a lengthy introduction from Trump broadcast from the New York Hilton Saturday morning.
"Americans can choose a leader who will fight to make America safe and prosperous again and bring real change or we can elect someone who literally personifies the failed establishment in Washington, D.C."
Nearly eight years of the combined policies of President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have "weakened America's place in the world and stifled our nation's economy," Pence continued, and the terrorist attacks at home and overseas and Friday's attempted coup in Turkey "all attest to a world spinning apart."
"History teaches us that weakness arouses evil," Pence continued. "Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's foreign policy of leading from behind, moving red lines, feigning resets with Russia and the rise of ISIS is a testament to the truth of history and we must bring a change to America's stand in the world."
Further, the governor said, the United States can't afford to have four more years of "apologizing to our enemies and abandoning our friends. America needs to be strong for the world to be safe."
Trump will lead on the world stage from a position of strength while standing with U.S. allies and hunting down and destroying the enemies of freedom, Pence continued.
At home, said Pence, "Donald Trump wants to cut taxes. Hillary Clinton plans to raise taxes, on working families, small businesses and family farms. Where Donald Trump is committed to repeal Obamacare lock, stock and barrel, Hillary Clinton looks at Obamacare as a good start and wants to take Bernie Sanders' path down to single payer socialized medicine."
Trump also supports an energy strategy that ends the war on coal, while Clinton promised a plan to close mines and put coal miners out of work, said Pence, and Trump wants a strong stance on immigration.
Further, he said, Trump plans to appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court, while Clinton will "appoint Supreme Court justices who will legislate from the bench, abandon the sanctity of life and rewrite our Second Amendment."
Trump, while introducing Pence, lambasted Clinton, and compared Pence's distinctions with Clinton's faults.
"Gov. Pence served Indiana with distinction in Congress," said Trump in his wide-ranging speech, delivered in New York City Saturday morning. "He rose to leadership and served as the chairman of the entire House Republican Conference. Number one. He's really got the skills of a highly talented executive, leading the state of Indiana to jobs, growth and opportunity in spite of the relentless obstacles put in his way and every state's way by the [President Barack] Obama administration."
Pence is a man of "honor, character, and honesty," continued Trump, but "Hillary Clinton is the embodiment of corruption. She's a corrupt person...and I think that while she got away with murder, in fact I think it might be her greatest accomplishment, escaping the recent scandal and her lies and the loss of 33,000 e-mails. But it wasn't a loss. She discarded them. That in of itself is a major crime. Other people have been paying tremendous prices for what they've done which is peanuts compared to what happened with Hillary Clinton."
"On top of everything else, Hillary made $26 million making speeches to special interests in a short period of time," Trump said, She's totally owned by Wall Street. We believe in Americanism. She believes in globalism. It's not that she believes in it the people who give her all this money believe in it. She'll believe in whatever they want her to believe."
In comparison, he said, "Mike Pence will never be afraid to speak the name of our enemy, radical Islam, radical Islamic terrorism. You saw it the other day with the truck, screaming out the window, you heard what he was screaming out the window. You saw it in San Bernadino. You saw it at the World Trade Center. You saw it in Orlando. How horrible was that? You saw it in Paris. You see it all over. And Hillary is a weak person."
Pence will be his partner in the campaign and the White House "to fix our rigged system," he continued. "We are in a rigged rigged system. And we have to make it safe again, and to make America great again."
He expressed his condolences for the victims of the attacks in Nice, France, this week, and said he was glad the coup attempt in Turkey has been resolved, but went on to comment that the Middle East "is more unstable than ever before" following four years of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.
"[She] led [President Barack] Obama down a horrible path, because I don't even think he could have made these decisions so badly," said Trump. "She led him right down a horrible path. He didn't know what he was doing, Iraq, Syria, all into chaos. And Iran is on a path to nuclear weapons. And on top of that, we gave them back $150 billion and we didn't get our hostages until the end."
Also, Obama and Clinton destroyed the nation's manufacturing base, complained Trump, and "every single thing they touched has turned to horrible, horrible, death defying problems."
Pence, he continued, will be a leader" who will help us deliver a safe society and really prosperous society for all Americans. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence was my first choice. I've admired the work he's done."
He said he also picked Pence for party unity.
"I have to be honest," he said, "so many people have said party unity because I'm an outsider. This wasn't close. I won in a landslide, this wasn't close...we got almost 14 million votes. That's more than any other person in the history of the Republican Party."
And with Pence, "I looked at Indiana and I won Indiana big. Remember, Indiana was going to be the firewall. That's where Trump was going down. They agreed I'd win New York, Pennsylvania, win all these places. Indiana was going to be the firewall. So I got to study Indiana."
"Indiana's unemployment rate, this is the primary reason I wanted Mike, other than he looks very good, other than he's got an incredible family. Incredible wife and family. Karen is amazing," said Trump. "He is highly respected. He would have won, I think, very easily in Indiana."
That state's unemployment rate has fallen under Pence from 8.4 when he started to less than five percent this year, Trump said, and its labor force has increased by more than 186,000 jobs.
Pence also balanced the state's budget and even produced a surplus in Indiana, which has a triple-A credit rating, said Trump and he also lauded Pence's record on veterans issues and on education.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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