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Fans react to Vice President Mike Pence for leaving the Colts game early. Clark Wade, Jim Ayello/IndyStar

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, stand during the playing of the national anthem before an NFL football game between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2017, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)(Photo: Michael Conroy, AP)

INDIANAPOLIS North Korea and its nukes can wait. TheWhite House has declared war on the NFL. And on the First Amendment.

Two weeks after President Trump decreed that NFL players who kneel during the national anthem should be fired, Vice President Mike Pence walked out of Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday after about 20 members of the San Francisco 49ers knelt during the anthem. The 49ers were in town to play the Indianapolis Colts.

Pence was in town to upstage Peyton Manning.

More: Trump: I asked Pence to leave Colts game over anthem protests

Swarens:Mr. Vice President, please get your priorities straight

What, you think he didnt know the 49ers would kneel on Sunday? Pence knew. The 49ers are the one franchise, the only franchise, that have had at least one player kneel before every game since Colin Kaepernick was the first to do it in the 2016 preseason. Kaepernick played for the 49ers, of course. Last week, following Trumps unpatriotic assertion that he would fire someone for exercising their First Amendment rights, more than half the San Francisco roster knelt.

Pence knew.

Hell, the media members that follow Pence were told before the game not to bother leaving their vans and enter Lucas Oil Stadium, according to a tweet from NBC News Vaughn Hillyard. They wouldnt be there long, because Pence wouldnt be there long.Trump, as Trump is wont to do, took credit in a tweet for Pence's walkout by saying he'd asked Pence to leave if anyone knelt.

This was planned.

Listen, part of me a small part, and not that part that won this internal argument admired Pence for the irony of his blatant look-at-me maneuver. NFL players are doing the same thing when they kneel for the anthem, right? Its about making a statement. Its about pushing an agenda. Lets not be hypocritical here and ignore that.

And I say that as someone who supports their right to kneel, and more than that, understands why they do it. Great as our country is, best in the world, were still failing to provide equality for minorities. Its heartbreaking, so many of the headlines we get these days, like the ones last month from Charlottesville, Va. Go back a few years and there are other cities: Ferguson, Mo. Sanford, Fla. Baton Rouge. Minneapolis.

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The bigger part of me is stunned that the President and now Vice President of the United States would take such a public position against one of the greatest rights the U.S. Constitution grants us: freedom of speech. Its one thing for you to rip NFL players for kneeling during the anthem. They have the right to kneel, and you have the right to hate it. You have the right to boo. You have the right to rise from your seat and leave the game. So many of my family members fought overseas, some of them not coming back completely whole, for you to have that right. So, boo. So, leave. You dont have my agreement, but you have my support.

But when the top two elected leaders of our democracy decide that political speech in this case, a silent and non-violent form of political speech is unacceptable to the point of walking out of the game where it happens, well, thats chilling. Thats the kind of oppressive nonsense our ancestors were leaving when they crossed the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of years ago.

As an aside, how much taxpayer money did Pence waste to make this grandiose statement of political oppression, anyway? He traveled here with his usual contingent of aides and bodyguards, and he didnt fly standby on Delta. Chew on that for just a minute.

As another aside, what was Pence thinking, doing this on a day the Colts franchise thought he was in town to honor Peyton Manning and celebrate his induction into the Ring of Honor? As VP of the country, and as Indianas former governor, Pence has a standing invitation to come to a Colts game and watch it from a suite. A few weeks ago he accepted that offer. He claimed a suite just off mid-field.

More Doyel: Colts players explain why they are kneeling for national anthem

More Doyel: Once a team divided by anthem protest, Colts bond over T-shirts

The presence of the U.S. Vice President is a disruption, anywhere he goes. Colts fans were urged in an announcement by the team and by IMPD to come early to navigate the expected delays:

Public Safety is our number one priority. Due to Public Safety enhancements, the Indianapolis Colts, IMPD and Lucas Oil Stadium encourage fans to arrive early to Sundays 49ers vs Colts game. Kickoff is at 1 p.m., gates open at 11 a.m.

The Colts had no idea none that he would be leaving before kickoff. They were just the wall Pence was using to paint his political graffiti.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at http://www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.

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Mike Pence leaving NFL game was using Colts for political ...

Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a joint press conference with Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos at the presidential guesthouse in Cartagena, Colombia. Fernando Vergara / AP

Three defense officials initially told NBC News that the service members were in Colombia in connection with Pence's trip to Latin America earlier this month, but a defense official later told NBC News the incident occurred in Panama.

A White House official told NBC News that Pence had not left the U.S. when the incident occurred. His staff became aware of the problem when they saw security camera video of the members of the detail bringing the women into the secure area, the officials said.

The service members who were senior members of the services, according to one of the officials were brought back to the United States and removed from the White House detail once the allegations surfaced.

"We are aware of the incident and it is currently under investigation," Air Force spokesman Col. Patrick S. Ryder. "We can confirm that the individuals in question have been reassigned back to the Army and Air Force."

There is no indication at this point that the women who were brought to the hotel were prostitutes, officials said.

In 2012, eight Secret Service agents doing advance work for a presidential trip to Colombia lost their jobs after allegations that some

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Military Members on Pence Detail Reassigned for Bringing Women to Hotel - NBCNews.com

When Donald Trump selected him as his running mate in July 2016, Mike Pence was seen largely as a way to ensure that social conservatives and evangelicals skeptical of Trump would turn out to vote for him. Like most vice presidential picks, Pence was meant to serve a specific but limited purpose. A red-state governor with strong ties to the most conservative elements of the Republican Party, and more than a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives, Pence could shore up Trumps lack of experience, and at least on paper, he looked like the perfect political counterweight to a flamethrowing outsider.

A little more than a year later, amid the backbiting, tumult, and controversy that have defined Trumps presidency, Pence remains exactly what he was brought in to bea rare pillar of calm, polished professionalism. Hes avoided West Wing knife fights, managing not to make enemies in a White House riven by rival factions and power struggles. Pence has also tactfully steered clear of making any significant slights or public contradictions of the president and wisely avoided whats perhaps the gravest sin in Trump Worldovershadowing the boss.

And yet a quiet tension looms over his role. As questions swirl about Trumps future and what may come after, attention has returned to Pence and his potential ambitions. News that he started his own leadership PAC in May raised eyebrows about whether Pence, 58, was actively preparing for life post-Trump or even considering a run in 2020 himself, something he vehemently denies but that Democrats are taking seriously. Still, as he becomes a stabilizing force inside an erratic White Houseif only by defaultthe question arises: Can he use that role to effect change inside it?

Evidence suggests Trump has come to realize Pences value as an asset to be deployed. Whether he sees him as someone worth listening to is another matter. Pence opened for Trump at an Aug. 22 rally in Phoenix, asserting the bosss commitment to racial harmony. Trump proceeded to trample that message in his ensuing speech. The two men do talk multiple times a day and have a scheduled lunch every week. Trumps chief of staff, U.S. Marine Corps General John Kelly, has also struck up a close relationship with Pence and talks with the vice presidents chief of staff, Nick Ayers, each morning and throughout the day.

Among senior officials in the West Wing, no one has the legislative and executive expertise of Pence, who spent four years as governor of Indiana after his 12 years in Congress. His staff is versed in state and national politics and has deep ties to Congress and the Republican Party. After the departure of Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer, both of whom spent years working for the Republican National Committee, those ties are crucial to a West Wing devoid of many Republican stalwarts.

Pence has earned a broad portfolio of domestic and foreign policy issues to oversee, including a big role in formulating the strategy for Afghanistan. This summer, hes led meetings with military and national security advisers, collecting and analyzing options, according to a person familiar with the planning process. In a two-hour meeting at Camp David on Aug. 18, rather than advocate for a particular position, Pence played the intermediary, making sure Trump got a complete picture of the scenarios, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Before the presidents Aug. 21 address on the U.S.s future involvement in Afghanistan, it was Pencenot Trumpwho talked to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the person says.

Pence has taken on a weighty foreign policy role, traveling to a dozen countries, where hes smoothed the rough edges of Trumps nationalist trade talk and volatile foreign policy declarations. During recent stops in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Panama, he had to calm leaders over Trumps remarks that a military option was on the table for Venezuela and to reassure countries that the U.S. was still an eager trading partner. As tensions escalated with North Korea, it was Pence, clad in a leather bomber jacket, who scowled across the 38th parallel in April.

Perhaps Pences biggest asset is his relationship with congressional Republicans. He has lunch with GOP senators almost every Tuesday when Congress is in session, something his predecessors rarely kept up. Hes also made the rare move of opening an office on the House side of the Hill and spends much of his time at the U.S. Capitol. During the tensest moments of the health-care debate, some House aides said they preferred dealing with Pence and his staff, ignoring calls from Priebus, says a senior aide to Republican leadership. Pence is close with House Speaker Paul Ryan and often informs him on White House policy decisions. It helps that Trumps legislative affairs director, Marc Short, is a former Pence operative.

No one is more influential in the Capitol than Mike Pence, says North Carolina Representative Mark Walker, chairman of the conservative 170-member Republican Study Committee. Pence is one of the few people who can bridge the different political groups in the House. The vice president was crucial in getting the Obamacare repeal through the House, though when it came to getting it through the Senate, he was less effective. His last-minute entreaties to Arizona Republican Senator John McCain failed.

As relations between Trump and Republican leaders in Congress have soured, particularly with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Pence will likely have to play the role of mediator. McConnell credits Pence for his active role on the Hill and calls him an indispensable player for the White House. His influence also gives him a greater ability to push his own agenda of entitlement cuts and ending funding for Planned Parenthood. Neil Bradley, a former top GOP House staffer and advocate at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says Pence will be absolutely critical to getting a tax bill passed this fall.

Pence is also expected to be a surrogate for Trump in the 2018 midterm elections, particularly in conservative areas of the country where his endorsement may carry more weight than Trumps. With the West Wing a revolving door of staffers quitting or being dismissed, Pence has job security. As vice president, hes the one White House official whom Trump cant fire.

BOTTOM LINE - Pence has avoided the political backstabbing in the West Wing and does parts of the job Trump wont. Can he help get the president back on track?

See more here:
Mike Pence Is More Important Than Ever for Trump - Bloomberg

President Trumps strategy for South Asia will undo the failed policies of the past and put the safety and security of the American people first.

Mike Pence: Donald Trumps new American strategy for Afghanistan will undo past failures Editorial USA Today August 21, 2017

President Trump has no higher priority than the safety and security of the American people. Since the very first day of our administration, he has taken decisive action to protect our citizens, our country and our very way of life and on Monday, President Trump announced a new strategy for addressing threats from Afghanistan and South Asia that will enhance the security of our homeland and protect our people from those who would do us harm.

The president has authorized our armed forces to directly target the terrorists and militant networks that sow violence and chaos throughout Afghanistan, who put our soldiers at risk and destabilize the region. He has lifted the restrictions that prevented our commanders in the field from fully using their judgment and expertise to carry out their critical missions.

Achieving this goal requires that both the Afghan authorities and the Taliban demonstrate political will to participate in a meaningful dialogue.

To be clear: Americas goal in Afghanistan is not to impose democracy or a strong central government that runs counter to Afghanistans tradition of local autonomy. Nonetheless, we insist that the Afghan government reduce corruption, implement reforms, and continue to strengthen its security forces, which have repeatedly proved their courage and resolve on the field of battle.

The previous administration alerted our enemies ahead of time by announcing troop numbers and timelines, something President Trump has wisely refused to do.

A stable Afghanistan will mean a safer America. To achieve this goal, President Trumps new strategy for South Asia also calls for a shift in Americas policy towards Pakistan, a place he refuses to ignore.

Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in Afghanistan. It has much more to lose by supporting terrorists. The president has put them on notice.

Finally, the president's strategy for South Asia involves a stronger strategic partnership with India the worlds largest democracy and a key security and economic partner.

President Trumps strategy for South Asia will undo the failed policies of the past and put the safety and security of the American people first.

Read the full editorial here.

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VPOTUS Mike Pence Editorial: Donald Trump's New American Strategy for Afghanistan Will Undo Past Failures - Whitehouse.gov (press release)

The answer to what we should do with all these troublesome Confederate monuments?

Just build more statues of other people!

Thats according to Vice President Mike Pence, who told Fox & Friends on Tuesday hed like to see the U.S.erect more statues for heroes instead of tearing down Confederate monumentsthat have graced our cities.

Obviously, I think that should always be a local decision, Pence said.But Im someone who believes in more monuments, not less monuments. What we ought to do is, we ought to remember our history, but we also ought to celebrate the progress that weve made since that history.

He added: Rather than tearing down monuments that have graced our cities all across this country for years, we ought to be building more monuments.

We ought to be celebrating the men and women who have helped our nation move toward a more perfect union and tell the whole story of America.

The debate over Confederate statues most of which were actually built during the Jim Crow era, decades after the Civil War has taken on renewed urgency after a white supremacist and neo-Nazi rally this month in Charlottesville, Virginia, left one dead and 19 injured.

The racist gathering, ostensibly to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, has inspired numerous other cities to consider removing their Confederate monuments.

Language in this story has been amended to clarify Pences remarks.

America does not do a good job of tracking incidents of hate and bias. We need your help to create a database of such incidents across the country, so we all know whats going on. Tell us your story.

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Mike Pence's Answer On Confederate Statues? Build More ...