Footage of Mike Pence delivering a patriotic Memorial Day monologue on his radio show in May 1997 has resurfaced and gone viral.
The tribute: Pence, looking young at 36, is seen addressing military veterans who were tuning into “The Mike Pence Show” on Indiana radio station WRCR ahead of the holiday weekend.
- President Donald Trump approvingly retweeted the video of his vice president on Tuesday, and it has racked up 2 million views.
In the clip, Pence turns from discussing an ongoing cheating scandal involving a female Air Force pilot to pay tribute to the U.S. service members, including his late father, who “kept freedom alive for the world.”
- “You might have been warriors on the battlefields of the Cold War, places like Korea and Vietnam. In Korea on Hamburger Hill, my father earned the Bronze Star — you might have been alongside him, or you might have been at home just praying for him, for him and his buddies,” he said.
- “I just want to thank you because even though I’m at the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation, I’m supposed to be a cynic, I’m supposed to not appreciate you people, the sacrifices that you’ve made. I do. I thank God for you.”
- “The American flag will be flying out on the front step of the Pence house this weekend is for you,” he added.
A military family: Pence, a Republican politician, hosted the daily show on Indiana radio between 1992 and 1999 before being elected to Congress in Indiana in 2000 on his third try; he went on to be elected governor of the state in 2012.
- Pence once described his radio persona as “Rush Limbaugh on decaf” — a milder version of the famously strident conservative talk radio legend.
At a Veteran’s Day event at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 2017, then-Vice President Pence said his father, Edward Pence, taught him “the quiet cost of freedom, and the burden so many of our veterans bear in their hearts.”
Man for the moment: Usually outshined by Trump, Pence has lately earned accolades from the right for stepping up in the 2020 campaign while the president was being treated for COVID-19.
- Some conservatives were so impressed with his performance at last Wednesday’s vice presidential debate they began to contemplate a Pence presidency.
- National Review critic-at-large Kyle Smith mused on Saturday: “What might a GOP be like that was led by someone who could thoroughly, rationally articulate all of the party’s positions without rage-tweeting or getting his facts jumbled?”
