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SALT LAKE CITY Former Vice President Mike Pence told several Utah lawmakers and business leaders he believes the Biden administration has weakened America at home and abroad, but hinted that change is coming.

He repeatedly took aim at President Joe Biden during a luncheon in the Zions Bank Head Office in Salt Lake City Friday afternoon, blaming the president for crime, illegal immigration, energy prices and the chaotic removal of troops from Afghanistan.

Im here to tell you, hope is on the way, he said. I truly believe we are 18 months away from a great American comeback, and it will start right here.

Pence, Donald Trumps two-time running mate and vice president, has long been rumored as a potential challenger to his former boss in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. Although Pence has yet to announce a formal campaign, he is reportedly planning to launch a political action committee to back his candidacy, according toPolitico.

Projecting a difference in tone and style to the former president, Pence called for a return to civility and respect in political discourse in the country.

I believe theres a hunger in this country to restore civility to the public debate, he said. Our politics is more divided today than any time in my lifetime, (but) Im not convinced the American people are as divided.

The closed-door roundtable was hosted by the Utah Valley University Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy. Former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and philanthropist Scott Keller, whose name adorns the Scott C. Keller business building at UVU, joined Pence for a luncheon that was open to the media.

Pence is the second potential 2024 candidate to visit Utah in as many weeks, after FloridaGov. Ron DeSantis addressed delegatesat Utahs Republican Party convention Saturday at UVU.

Pences visit to Utah comes a day after hetestified before a grand juryin Washington, D.C., that is investigating Trumps role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump supporters had pressured Pence during theJan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrectionto reject electoral votes cast for then-President-elect Joe Biden, though legal experts and Pence himself have said the vice president doesnt have that power.

Since then, Pence has had a complicated relationship with the former president and his supporters, and has emerged as a potential challenger to Trump. Last month, Pence said Trumps reckless words endangered my familyand everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.

This story will be updated.

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'Hope is on the way': Mike Pence tells Utahns an 'American ... - KSLTV

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 28, 2023. (KUTV)

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks in downtown Salt Lake today, a day after testifying for hours before a grand jury in Washington investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Pences speech to an invitation-only lunch crowd is happening at Zions Bank headquarters, and almost certainly was scheduled before his grand jury appearance.

I will always believe by Gods grace, with my wife by my side all day and nightthat we did our duty under the Constitution of the United States of America, Pence said to a standing ovation.

The Gary R Herbert Institute for Public Policy at UVU said it invited Pence to speak on local and national public policy issues, and said he will share his insights from his time serving as vice president, congressman and governor.

Pence had the latter two roles in Indiana, but the news getting the most attention now surrounds defying former President Trumps call for him to block certification of the 2020 election resultsand Pences own likely run for the White House.

The former vice president reportedly resisted the grand jury testimony, but a federal judge ruled he had to comply with a subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith, who is focused on Trumps actions related to the 2020 election.

Politico earlier reported Pence is building out his political team to get ready for a presidential run, and that his nonprofit called Advancing American Freedom has already held a retreat in Utah attended by major donors.

Polls published by realclearpolitics.com show Pence in third place for the Republican nomination, well behind Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

On a visit to Utah while vice president, Pence promoted the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, which was stalled in Congress at the time, but eventually became law.

After his speech at a medical equipment manufacturer, he took questions from local reporters, and he may do the same today.

Pence presided as Congress certified the election results against the wishes of Trump, and after demonstrators breached the Capitol.

The former vice president spoke of his Christian faith, immigration, national debt, and a rising threat from Chinaand it was not lost on anyone in the room that hes eyeing his own run for the White House.

I think the American people want to see us restore a threshold of civility and respect in public life once again, said Pence to applause. I believe it with all my heart.

People who watched and listened Friday described Pence as a person of strong conviction with power and experience and kindness.

RELATED: Former Vice President Mike Pence hosting roundtable discussion in Utah

But Kevin Johnson added another impression.

Hes not overly exciting, Johnson said. Hes not going to bring down the house.

Pence is running third in polls for the GOP presidential nomination, in single digits, and well behind Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Asked if he would vote for Pence for president, Curtis Blair said with a smile, You know, thats a really good question. I dont know.

Carson Jorgensen, former Utah Republican Party chair, cast Pence as a long shot.

I think its an uphill battle for him, said Jorgensen, and everybody knows it.

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Mike Pence speaking in Utah day after grand jury testimony - KUTV 2News

(NewsNation) Affirming what he called a consistent position on abortion, former Vice President Mike Pence hailed the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, saying the legal decision was sent to the ash heap of history where it belongs.

Pence made the comment Monday on The Hill on NewsNation, where he discussed a range of topics including abortion, a potential presidential 2024 run and the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

He praised the work of the Trump administration appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who had all voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that granted women the right to an abortion nationwide.

I couldnt be more proud to have been part of the administration that appointed three of the justices that sent Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs, Pence said.

Pences stance is in contrast to the majority of Americans, who disapprove of the high courts decision, according to Pew Research Center. In a July 2022 poll 62% of respondents said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Abortion became a central focus of the 2022 midterm elections, particularly for Democrats who say the courts decision galvanized their voters. In the leadup to the election, 56% of Americans in another Pew poll said abortion was was very important to them. That number dropped to 41% among Republican voters.

You can watch a portion of Pences interview above.

You can watch the full interview with Pence here.

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Pence: Roe v. Wade belongs in ash heap of history - NewsNation Now

Washington Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is expected to seek the GOP presidential nomination, said he would like to see a widely used abortion pill taken off shelves to "protect the unborn" and said he has "deep concerns" about the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the drug mifepristone more than 20 years ago.

In an interview that aired Sunday on "Face the Nation," Pence addressed the Supreme Court's order on Friday that preserved access to mifepristone as litigation over the FDA's 23-year-old approval of the medication continues.

"I'd like to see this medication off the market to protect the unborn," Pence told CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa. "But I have deep concerns about the way the FDA went about approving mifepristone 20 years ago. I'm grateful that action is being taken in the courts to hold the FDA accountable to what the law requires in reviewing any medication that's made on the marketplace."

The Supreme Court's intervention in the dispute over mifepristone came after a federal judge in Texas blocked the FDA's 2000 approval of mifepristone on April 7. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit narrowed the district court's decision, but rolled back a series of actions taken by the FDA since 2016 that relaxed the rules surrounding the drug and made it easier to access.

click to expand

The Justice Department and pharmaceutical company Danco Laboratories, which makes mifepristone, asked the Supreme Court to pause the lower court orders, and the justices agreed to do so Friday, maintaining the abortion drug's availability for now.

Pence said that the FDA should be held accountable under the law for how it approved mifepristone, and he criticized the Biden administration for lifting a policy in 2021 that required the abortion pill to be dispensed in-person, which allowed it to be sent by mail.

"For the sake of protecting the unborn, but also for the health and safety of women, I'm looking forward to this litigation continuing and holding the manufacturers of mifepristone accountable," Pence said.

Medication abortions have become increasingly common and accounted for more than half of all abortions in the U.S. in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Mifepristone is taken in combination with a second medicine, misoprostol, to terminate a pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation.

The FDA has argued in court papers that the risk of serious adverse events from mifepristone is extremely low when it is taken as directed, and serious complications associated with mifepristone are rare, involving just a fraction of a percent of cases. More than 5 million women have ended their pregnancies using mifepristone, according to court filings.

The dispute over the abortion pill's availability is the most significant to land before the Supreme Court since it overruled Roe v. Wade last June. Since then, more than a dozen states have imposed near-total bans or more stringent limits on abortions. In 15 states, restrictions are in place that make it harder for patients to obtain medication abortions, including by requiring the drugs to be provided by a physician, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research organization.

The Supreme Court's decision to unwind the constitutional right to abortion was a significant victory for conservatives, who for decades have been pushing for Roe's reversal. But the issue of abortion is expected to be a major one in the 2024 election.

Last week, the head of the anti-abortion rights group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America criticized former President Donald Trump for saying that abortion policies should be decided by the states, calling the position "morally indefensible for a self-proclaimed pro-life" presidential candidate.

Pence said he disagrees with Trump's assertion and abortion "isn't a states-only decision." Instead, the former vice president called for a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

"The cause of restoring the sanctity of life to the center of American law is the calling of our time," he said. "The Supreme Court in the Dobbs decision last June gave the American people a new beginning for life. It returned the question of abortion to the states and to the American people. But it didn't just return it exclusively to the states."

Pence said he is proud that the three justices appointed to the Supreme Court during the Trump presidency all voted to overturn Roe. But he said that he believes now, Americans who oppose abortion rights want their elected officials to "seize every opportunity to put the interests of the unborn first and also, in equal measure, to demonstrate the generosity and compassion of the American people, toward women who've been caught up in abortion in the last 50 years, and women who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy today,"

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Mike Pence says he wants abortion pill mifepristone "off the market" - CBS News

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Former US vice president Mike Pence has declined to condemn a spate of recent gun attacks on innocent bystanders, suggesting they were a consequence of rising crime rates.

In an interview with CBS's Face the Nation programme on Sunday, Mr Pence said the shooting of unarmed civilians by legal firearm owners should not require Americans to forfeit their gun rights.

The interviewer appeared to be referencing three recent incidents in which people who approached the wrong house or car were fired upon by the occupant, despite posing no threat.

Kaylin Gillis, 20, was shot dead in rural New York after pulling into the wrong driveway, while Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager in Missouri, survived being shot by a white homeowner because he rang the wrong doorbell. Two cheerleaders in Texas were also shot when one of them mistakenly tried to enter the wrong car in a parking lot.

Asked what could be done to stem the fear and violence, Mr Pence said: "Well, our- our hearts go out to the families of lost loved ones in the incidents in- in Kansas City, and in upstate New York. I just can't imagine the pain that they're enduring in that tragedy.

"But," he continued, "tragedy should not require us to forfeit our liberty. And the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution of the United States.

"I don't know the facts of those cases, I'm confident that local law enforcement will move forward and apply the law in a proper way. But I can't help but suspect that this recent spate of tragedies is evidence of the fear that so many Americans are feeling about the crime wave besetting this country."

When the interviewer suggested there was "no excuse" for shooting at somebody who comes to your door, Mr Pence declined to agree or disagree, saying only that he [couldn't imagine] the circumstances" that would lead someone to do that and was sure local law enforcers would "hold people to a proper accounting".

Republicans have made claims of a Democratic "crime wave" central to their campaigning since 2021, reportedly spending around $157m on crime-related adverts in advance of last year's midterm elections.

The average US murder rate rose significantly between 2019 an 2021 before apparently falling in 2022, according to the FBI, with some cities seeing sharp spikes in homicides.

The rate of violent crime seems to have dropped slightly, but the FBI's data for 2021 is patchy and does not include major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Democrats contend that loose Republican gun regulations are feeding the problem, pointing to broadly higher murder rates in red states such as Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri, and Arkansas.

Crystal Quade, leader of the Democratic minority in the Missouri House of Representatives, blamed the shooting of Ralph Yarl on extreme gun laws that have created a culture of fear... that turns neighbours against each other.

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Mike Pence makes excuses for shootings of Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis - The Independent