Former Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday he doesn’t think President Trump has completely changed the Republican Party, shrugging off populist sentiment in the GOP as “a minority voice.”
“I think President Trump, as presidents should, has changed aspects of the agenda of the Republican Party, but I don’t think he’s changed the Republican Party,” Pence said on “CNN News Central.”
Pence said his sense is that Republican voters are still connected by their commitment to conservative principles.
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“I’ve been traveling around this country over the last four years, speaking with everyday Americans, on everything from book tours to my own campaign for president,” Pence said.
“And what I’ve heard again and again is the deep commitment that Republican voters have to a strong national defense, American leadership in the world, fiscal responsibility, pro-growth policies, the right to life and traditional values.”
Pence dismissed concerns about the populist sentiment in the GOP.
“There is a populist move within the party that says we should marginalize the right to life, that we should embrace big government programs, that we should pull back from our commitments in the world,” the former vice president said. “But I think that’s a minority voice.”
Pence — who was shunned by much of Trump’s base for saying he lacked the authority to overturn the 2020 election — pointed to the passage of Trump’s tax and spending bill as evidence the party has not moved too far away from traditional conservative values.
He praised the bill for extending the 2017 tax cuts, first passed when Pence was in the White House, and for cutting off federal funding to Planned Parenthood.
Pence has criticized Trump at times since their White House days, but on Thursday said he is “very encouraged overall with the president’s leadership and his team at the Pentagon.”
