Mediaboss Marketing

Religion Unplugged believes in a diversity of well-reasoned and well-researched opinions. This piece reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily represent those of Religion Unplugged, its staff and contributors.

(OPINION) In nationwide polls, Donald Trump has defied multiple legal snarls to pad his already healthy margin over potential challenger Ron DeSantis for the Republican nomination. So far, those two swamp all other possible names, such as Nikki Haley.

As for state polling, South Carolina numbers last week from Winthrop University have Trump at 41% and DeSantis 20%, while the two locals got only 18% (Haley), and 7% (Tim Scott). Likewise, in New Hampshire with its first primary, a St. Anselm College poll in late March reported Trump 42%, DeSantis 29%, popular Governor Chris Sununu a mere 14% and Haley 4%.

Reporters on the politics, religion and religion-and-politics beats should especially keep a hawkeye (so to speak) on Iowa, with its crucial first-in-the-nation caucus next January turf already well trod by GOP hopefuls. An April 4 poll of likely GOP caucus-goers by J.L. Partners shows Trump at 41%, DeSantis 26% and Haley at 5%.

Here is some Iowa lore.

In 1975, the relatively unknown Jimmy Carter began energetically working every living room and county fair in sight, came in a surprise second to uncommitted in the 1976 Democratic caucus and went on to win it all.

Religion angle? Carter was doubtless helped in Iowa by his authentic image as a devout Baptist Sunday School teacher. In 2008, greenhorn Barack Obamas road to the White House began with an unexpected win in mostly-White Iowa.

As for Republican caucuses, televangelist Pat Robertson shocked the pundits by coming in second to Bob Dole and ahead of Vice President George H.W. Bush in 1988. Recent first-place winners were redeemed-drunk George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, Baptist minister Mike Huckabee in 2008, Catholic social conservative Rick Santorum in 2012, and preachers kid Ted Cruz, who beat the religiously ambiguous Trump in 2016.

An AP head last week depicted Trump and Iowa evangelicals: A bond that is hard to break. But a March 10 CBS head had a contrasting tone: Iowa Republicans say they may look beyond Trump in 2024.

CBS debriefed the influential Bob Vander Plaats (515263-3495 or info@thefamilyleader.com), whose Christian-oriented The Family Leader rallies Iowa social conservatives. Vander Plaats is among those who insist its an open field whatever the polls say. He predicts if Trump stalls in Iowa, I think its game on for the nomination. (He himself boosted Cruz over loser Trump in 2016.)

Iowas past underscores the importance of personable polls face-to-face campaigning (ditto New Hampshire) never Trumps strong point.

Observers like Chris Christie say that DeSantis may also lack the needed down-home charm. Would this pay off at church potlucks for active Methodist Haley, or evangelicals Scott or Mike Pence or Bob Jones University alumnus Asa Hutchinson?

The AP article says born-again Christians are the most influential group in Iowas GOP caucuses, giving faith leaders particular sway in helping organize voters and shape the results. Yes, activists are well-networked and energetic, but The Guy would emphasize that journalists should consider studying other aspects of Iowas religious map.

On that, and just in time for the campaign, the media and party strategists have fresh data from all states and counties nationwide from the 2020 round of the decennial U.S. Religion Census. Ryan Burges analysis underscores that in Iowa and other Midwest states, many counties have seen a church membership drop since 2010 of 10% or more. But which churches?

The full rundown on Iowa shows a state dominated by three religious categories. Though steadily shrinking, the largest remains mainline Protestants (generally more moderate than coastal flocks in those denominations), closely followed by two groups with more stable numbers since 1980, the Catholics and then evangelical Protestants. As often noted, Hispanic and Black numbers are minimal in Iowa.

Iowas biggest single denomination, as nationwide, is the Catholic Church, with 470,000 members. Might it matter that DeSantis is Catholic?

The Guy repeats his frequent admonition that political reporters who cover every evangelical twitch should focus more on Catholics and other tribes of vital swing voters. They could be up for grabs in 2024. An EWTN News poll of U.S. Catholics last October showed a lopsided 67% oppose a Trump rerun, while 58% do not want Joe Biden to seek a second term.

The biggest mainline denomination is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America with 185,000 adherents (there are also 107,000 in conservative Lutheran groups). Next come Iowas 174,000 United Methodists, now hit with their denominations nationwide split as depicted here and also here. The largest of the numerous evangelical groups is the nondenominational independent congregations, which count 85,000 members.

Might some or many evangelicals eventually turn against Trump?

Consider these April 5 words from Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who voted for Trump in 2020: I do not want Donald J. Trump to be the 2024 Republican nominee. There is simply too much baggage and too much Donald J. Trump. A statesman would realize that fact and make way for someone else to lead.

Its still early. The Guy advises fellow journalists to be cautious about seeming Trump inevitability in such a volatile and grumpy American era, especially when so much unpredictable Trump courtroom drama coincides with the campaign.

Richard Ostling is a former religion reporter for The Associated Press and a former correspondent for TIME Magazine. Hes also worked in broadcast TV and radio journalism covering religion and received a lifetime achievement award from Religion News Association. This piece first appeared at GetReligion.org.

View original post here:
Has Donald Trump Won Nomination Already? Careful. And Keep A Hawkeye On Iowa - Religion Unplugged

On this "Face the Nation" broadcast, moderated by Margaret Brennan:

Clickhere to browse full transcripts of "Face the Nation."

MARGARET BRENNAN: I'm Margaret Brennan.

And today on Face the Nation: The Supreme Court preserves access to an abortion pill, for now.

click to expand

And a daring evacuation of U.S. government personnel out of the embattled country of Sudan. Overnight, the mission to get U.S. diplomats and other personnel out of Sudan was successful. But what about the hundreds more Americans still trapped there?

We will talk with Delaware Democrat Chris Coons. He's on the Africa Subcommittee in the Senate.

Then: The Supreme Court makes an emergency ruling to keep mifepristone accessible for abortion, but sends the case back to the lower courts. Is the fight over? We will tell you what's next.

And the politics of abortion within the Republican Party. Our Robert Costa sat down with former vice president and potential 2024 candidate Mike Pence. Will he enter the race and challenge the former president?

(Begin VT)

ROBERT COSTA: Are you leaning in or are you leaning away from running?

MIKE PENCE (Former Vice President of the United States): Well, I'm here in Iowa, Robert.

(End VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: Plus, a series of deadly shooting errors, firing first and asking questions later, is taking its toll on a nation already anxious about gun violence.

We will talk with the mayor of Kansas City, Quinton Lucas, about the challenges he's facing running a blue city in a red state.

Finally, an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He's back in power, but what's different now?

It's all just ahead on Face the Nation.

Good morning, and welcome to Face the Nation.

We begin with a daring Special Forces rescue operation to get American diplomats out of Sudan, where fighting continues, as two top generals there jockey for power.

The State Department says security conditions aren't expected to improve anytime soon, and has temporarily suspended operations at the U.S. Embassy in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. Meanwhile, there are still hundreds of American citizens stranded in Sudan, where the airports have been closed for days.

For more now, we turn to national security correspondent David Martin.

David, good morning.

DAVID MARTIN: Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, this operation was high-risk. You had U.S. forces flying 800 miles from Djibouti to Ethiopia, then launching from Ethiopia to Sudan, and then had to go all the way back to Djibouti at the end, airlifted about 100 people out of the U.S. Embassy.

How did all this come together?

DAVID MARTIN: Well, distance was the primary challenge here, 800 miles. Helicopters just can't go that far. So you had to set up this forward staging base in Ethiopia, where they could top off before the aircraft went into the embassy in Khartoum.

The other thing was the uncertainty of whether or not they were going to be shot at. Both generals of these two warring sides had been warned in no uncertain terms, do not interfere. But you couldn't count at that, because we have -- we have seen all these cease-fires break down.

So the aircraft went in at night low level. And they had 100 special operations commandos on board. Those commandos set up a perimeter around this landing zone that was just outside the embassy and guarded that perimeter while the diplomats boarded the helicopters.

Overhead, there were two C-130 aircraft, one of which was for communications. The other was a gunship ready to take anybody who tried to approach the embassy under fire. They were on the ground for a little more than half-an-hour.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Wow.

DAVID MARTIN: No shots were fired. And then they were back on their way.

Somebody called it a pretty easy in-and-out, but it was long and grueling night. I mean, from start to finish, it was 17 hours.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And it was so high-risk. This went, sounds like, as best as could possibly be expected.

But there are still hundreds of American citizens who are on the ground. There is no plan to evacuate them. These were just government personnel pulled out. The State Department and the Pentagon say they will do what they can to help Americans get out. What does that mean?

DAVID MARTIN: Well, it certainly doesn't mean going in and seizing the airport and doing the normal kind of evacuation aboard airliners out of there.

What it means is conducting reconnaissance along this land route that goes from Khartoum all the way over to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, which is a 12- hour drive under the best conditions. So they can conduct reconnaissance over that. And then they can have U.S. Navy ships waiting to take in any Americans who make that drive.

But that, again, will be at the -- at a minimum, a long and grueling drive. And the conditions are just chaotic.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. And it is such a high-risk environment.

David, thank you very much for all of your reporting.

DAVID MARTIN: Sure thing.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Democratic Senator Chris Coons, who joins us from Wilmington, Delaware.

Good morning to you, Senator.

I know you've said you feared this violence for the past few weeks. And it was this intense fighting between Sudan's armed forces and a paramilitary group that led to this dramatic evacuation. Do you think the U.S. should have pulled out sooner?

SENATOR CHRIS COONS (D-Delaware): Well, Margaret, if I would been on this show, just two weeks ago, we wouldn't have been talking about fighting in Sudan, because there wasn't any.

There were special envoys from the U.N., the A.U., the U.S. all negotiating with these two generals, General Hemedti, General Burhan, of the regular army and the paramilitary. I'm still hopeful that they could return to a civilian government. It unwound fast in just the last week. And I'm grateful that our Special Forces have now successfully overnight evacuated the U.S. nationals who work in our embassy in Khartoum.

This is a temporary suspension. It's my hope and theirs that we will be able to return to Khartoum and the situation will stabilize. But, Margaret, this is the same sort of thing that happened in Kyiv in Ukraine, that has happened in other countries, in Yemen and Syria, where, when the fighting gets intense quickly, we rely on our Special Forces to evacuate U.S. nationals who staff an embassy in a country that descends into a war zone.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I know you've been saying the country may tip into all-out civil war.

Russia and China have really been extending their influence throughout Africa, Russia in Sudan as well, including that paramilitary group Wagner. They -- they have left behind hundreds of American civilians in Sudan, who now don't necessarily have a way out of the country. Are you concerned about how the United States can use some kind of leverage to help its citizens escape?

SENATOR CHRIS COONS: Well, Margaret, just a reminder that Sudan is a vast country. It's the third largest country in Africa, a country of 45 million people spread over a huge amount of territory.

Yes, I am concerned about the safety and security of U.S. nationals who've been serving in humanitarian missions or in other ways across the country. There are quite a few U.S.-Sudanese dual nationals in the country, and the U.N. and the U.S. and a number of other countries will do their best to help return to civilian rule, to end the fighting, to support a stabilization in Sudan.

But as for right now, an evacuation through some overland convoy is the most likely path out for folks who work for the U.N. and the World Food Program, for example, who serve other countries in Khartoum and around the country, and for those remaining U.S. nationals who may wish to leave.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But does the U.S. have any leverage to stop the fighting?

SENATOR CHRIS COONS: Just a reminder, Margaret, this is a country that for 30 years was under the brutal dictatorship of...

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

SENATOR CHRIS COONS: ... Omar al-Bashir. It was on the state sponsor of terrorism list. We don't have deep relationships with the Sudanese military or with the paramilitary force, the RSF.

We have some leverage, in that we provide development assistance, humanitarian relief. But, frankly, these two warring factions have started what may well be a fight to the finish. And we may have limited leverage in the next couple of weeks and months, as they carry out a fight to see who will ultimately be in control of the security of Sudan.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And that is why there's so much concern.

I want to ask you as well about your position on the Judiciary Committee. CBS interviewed earlier this week an attorney for an IRS agent who is seeking whistle-blower status from Congress to share information, he says, would contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee regarding the investigation into Hunter Biden.

Do you think it's worth looking into the possibility of undue influence here?

SENATOR CHRIS COONS: Look, anyone who comes forward and seeks whistle- blower protection status should be given that status. That's part of what we've put in place over many years, a system that allows career folks who work in different federal agencies the chance to blow the whistle and testify if they see something wrong.

I will remind you, nothing's been presented yet. This person hasn't come forward in any detail. If and when they do, if there's any substance to it, I expect that the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, and the ranking member will ensure that they are fairly and appropriately treated.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you confident in the conduct of Attorney General Merrick Garland when it comes to this case?

SENATOR CHRIS COONS: I am.

Look, President Biden, from the days he was campaigning to his first days as president, made it clear that he thought restoring the independence of the Department of Justice, removing any political influence for potential investigations was a core value that he brought to this service as president, and I'm confident that that's in no small part why he chose a seasoned circuit court judge, someone with also deep experience at DOJ.

I am confident that Merrick Garland has conducted himself appropriately here.

MARGARET BRENNAN: CBS reported back in October that the FBI had gathered evidence sufficient enough to charge Hunter Biden with tax and gun-related crimes and sent it to the U.S. attorney in Delaware.

And we know that, in the coming days, Mr. Biden's attorneys are set to meet with the U.S. attorney in Delaware. Do you have any sense if this is going to conclude soon? It's been ongoing since 2018.

SENATOR CHRIS COONS: No, I don't, Margaret, nor should I. It is an ongoing investigation that, as you say, has been conducted for years. The U.S. attorney here in Delaware is the U.S. attorney who was appointed by the previous administration.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

SENATOR CHRIS COONS: And, look, if there are any charges ever brought, we'll discuss them at that time. At this point, I think this is a long- going federal investigation, which I hope will reach a conclusion at some point soon.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, Senator Coons, thank you for joining us this morning and giving us your perspective.

SENATOR CHRIS COONS: Thank you, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the Friday Supreme Court decision, which preserves access to a widely used abortion pill, for now, while the legal process in the lower courts continues.

Chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford joins us.

Jan, it's good to have you back here.

This was a decision you predicted, 7-2, the dissent coming from Justice Alito, Clarence Thomas also objecting. The Supreme Court is keeping the drug available now. So what happens next?

JAN CRAWFORD: Well, that's right.

I mean, the bottom line is that this drug will remain available nationwide without any restrictions while these appeals play out. And that could take at least a year, I mean, even though this case is really on a fast track.

There's an argument next month before a panel of judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which will decide at some point whether that lower court judge in Texas was right that the FDA improperly authorized mifepristone some two decades ago.

But regardless of whatever the appeals court decides, whoever loses is going to go right back to the Supreme Court and ask the justices to step in and decide the merits, whether the FDA properly followed the right steps when it approved mifepristone in 2000, and then when it agreed to make it more widely available, easier for women to get in 2016.

That will set the stage for a major Supreme Court case on abortion access possibly as soon as next year.

MARGARET BRENNAN: An election year too.

Jan, there's great irony in the fact that the Supreme Court sent the decision on abortion access back to the states after Dobbs, and now we're talking about going back to the Supreme Court to decide on it again.

Will the justices -- I mean, how involved will they get? I mean, you think this is inevitable it ends up there?

JAN CRAWFORD: Well, I think it's going to go right back to the Supreme Court, because whoever loses will appeal it and ask the justices to get involved in decide it.

I don't think that they will.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You don't think they will hear it?

JAN CRAWFORD: I don't think they will ever reach the merits.

Well, I think they will -- they will have to hear it. But I think they're going to dismiss it on standing grounds. They're going to say that these challengers who went after the FDA authorization weren't able to show that they had right to be in federal court in the first place.

And let me just -- I mean, those are kind of bedrock conservative legal principles that really go to the heart of this case. To get into federal court, you can't just be upset about some issue. You have got to show you have been harmed, that you have a stake in the case. It can't be just something speculative in the future.

And I think that's a real problem for the challengers here. Now, the lower courts saw it differently. The Trump appointee, federal judge, saw it differently. But these conservative justices take those kinds of standing issues very seriously, because it goes to the point of judicial restraint.

And that's why what they're doing with this case is entirely consistent with what they did with Dobbs, the ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and - - last year and sent it back to the states.

What they're doing in this case is really saying, if they follow this rule on standing, that these challenges don't have business being in federal courts. We're going to set -- keep that kind of a high bar for getting into the courts. We don't want federal judges ruling on these social issues. That belongs in the political process.

So, the bottom line for this case, I think, next year...

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

JAN CRAWFORD: ... whenever they get back to it, is, I think they're going to dismiss it on standing. I think these conservative justices will join with the liberals and say, the challengers don't have a right to sue in this case.

It could be 8-1, possibly even unanimous.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Very quickly, a lot of scrutiny of Clarence Thomas. What do you think is going to happen to him?

JAN CRAWFORD: Well, as you know, there's been reports that he failed to disclose a couple of different things on his disclosure forms, vacations that were paid for by a really rich friend of his that he didn't disclose.

The rules on that were not very clear. They were recently amended. So, he said he will report that going forward. I think the more problematic one is some property that he and his family sold to the same friend, that that wasn't disclosed. His -- his -- people close to Thomas have suggested that's because he didn't make a profit on that.

See the original post here:
Full transcript of "Face the Nation" on April 23, 2023 - CBS News

Former Vice President Mike Pence was greeted by boos during a speech at the NRA convention. Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images

The NRA is rolling out after a noticeably smaller convention this weekend.

Why it matters: The NRA sets the agenda for gun politics advocating for freer access and even with a smaller crowd it retained its status as a mandatory stop for ambitious Republicans.

The big picture: Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence occupied the same stage, albeit without crossing paths, for the first time since leaving office estranged over the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

State of play: The NRA offered coveted speaking platforms to other select Indiana Republicans, including Gov. Eric Holcomb and Sen. Mike Braun, who is running for governor in 2024.

The intrigue: Trump snubbed Braun from the stage while giving a shout-out to rival gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, who did not speak.

The other side: Democratic Mayor Joe Hogsett met Saturday with Moms Demand Action, a group that advocates for firearm restrictions, and responded to questions about the NRA by noting Indianapolis is not scheduled to host the group again.

By the numbers: The NRA did not release an attendance estimate, but it was expected to be down from 70,000 in 2019 and 75,000 in 2014.

Flashback: Trump and Pence also spoke at the 2019 NRA meetings in front of 10,000 people at Lucas Oil Stadium.

The bottom line: The NRA, besieged by scandals and financial trouble, still served as a campaign stop on Indiana's road to 2024.

Here is the original post:
Pence booed at NRA Convention - Axios

Former Vice President Mike Pence plans to counter his one-time boss and former President Trumps recent remarks praising Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a speech on Wednesday, according to an advance excerpt of his address obtained by Politico.

In recent years, China has only grown bolder in repressing religious liberty, trampling human rights, committing trade abuses, threatening Taiwan and launching aggressive military maneuvers in the South China Sea, Pence is reportedly set to say during his remarks at the Nixon National Energy Conference on Wednesday.

Under Biden, Chinese influence is even spreading on American soil, the excerpt continues. China may not yet be an Evil Empire, but under President Xi, it certainly aspires to become one.

In a recent interview with Fox Newss Tucker Carlson, Trump described Xi as top of the line and a brilliant man.

Some people say Xi is a brilliant man. I happen to think hes an evil man, whose vision for the world is one in which freedom is constrained, but Beijings power is not, Pence is set to say at the event. Appeasement has never worked a single time in human history, and it will not work now.

America and her allies cannot allow either China or Russia to trample the liberty of our friends we must ensure that our leaders send an unambiguous message that such aggression will never be tolerated, the excerpt adds.

The former vice president, who is weighing a 2024 White House bid, has recently taken several swipes at Trump without specifically naming his old boss.

At the Republican National Committees spring donor retreat in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday, Pence suggested the GOP must resist the politics of personality and the lure of populism unmoored to timeless conservative values, in a clear reference to Trump.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

See the original post here:
Pence to target Trumps remarks on Chinas Xi - Yahoo News

Then-Vice President Mike Pence speaks to the NRA in 2018. Pence has avoided cattle calls over the past year where former President Donald Trump was speaking. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

INDIANAPOLIS Mike Pence is aiming to get to the right of Donald Trump on guns, bringing debates the two once had behind closed doors in the White House into the public eye.

The former vice president is slated to come on his Hoosier home turf for the National Rifle Associations annual leadership summit in Indianapolis Friday, during which he is expected to draw implicit contrasts with his former boss.

His speech, according to an adviser, is likely to address both the Nashville and Louisville mass shootings, talk about the importance of mental health facilities, train and supply armed officers at schools and embrace expediting the death penalty for perpetrators.

What Pence wont talk about, though, is perhaps more instructive: Championing red flag laws that give law enforcement officials the opportunity to intervene when a person is deemed as high-risk, as well as banning bump stocks. Those two issues were ones Trump was open to or acted upon during his administration. Pence advocated for red flag laws as vice president, but has since disavowed the idea, with his Advancing American Freedom group coming out against it in March 2022.

It will make for interesting political theater, said a Republican close to past such NRA proceedings who has met with both Trump and Pence on the issue of firearms, and was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

The reversal is part of an effort to paint Trump as unreliable on Second Amendment rights. And, indeed, when asked for comment, a Pence adviser sent a February 2018 Daily Mail item referencing Sen. Diane Feinsteins (D-Calif.) positive reaction to Trumps willingness to consider firearm restrictions: Feinstein cant contain her glee in gun control meeting with Trump.

That article detailed an infamous gathering of lawmakers following the Parkland, Fla. shooting. In an effort to further draw a distinction, a Pence ally said that in a subsequent 2018 Oval Office meeting, Pence talked Trump down from those restrictions. A person familiar with those discussions, who has not taken a position on the 2024 primary, confirmed the exchange.

Hes moving away from Trump, not toward him, said longtime Pence friend Mike Murphy, a former Republican member of the Indiana House of Representatives. He seems to be getting a little more confident in his own skin every day.

It is all part of a political tightrope Pence is walking ahead of what is expected to be his own campaign launch later this summer: How to articulate the rationale for his candidacy and distinguish himself from the man he served unflinchingly for four years.

The cattle call in front of rank-and-file NRA members amid what is advertised to be 14 acres of guns & gear this weekend will be the first time that both Pence and Trump have shared a stage since they left office. And it will be the first of a series of events ahead of the 2024 presidential primary where they will both be featured speakers. Pence and Trump are both addressing top RNC donors in Nashville this weekend. The two are unlikely to cross paths, a person familiar with the logistics of the event told POLITICO. And on both occasions, Trump will have the last word.

Theyll choreograph it, a person close to both Trump and Pence orbits said.

In addition, both will speak at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition spring kick off next week, although Trump will be giving his speech remotely.

The dueling appearances come amid an increasingly icy and unprecedented point in their relationship. Never before in American history has the sitting vice president challenged the former president of his own party.

Its not just a political conflict. Theyre also potentially at odds in the courts, too. Trump has appealed a federal courts decision to force Pence to testify to a grand jury investigating Trumps effort to subvert the 2020 election.

Trump appeared last year at the NRAs annual convention in Houston just days after the deadly Uvalde school shooting. In his speech, Trump called for overhaul of school security measures, including allowing only one entrance to schools and metal detectors, and he also emphasized the need for better mental health policies. Trump, like many Republicans, has said responsible gun owners are the best line of defense in mass shootings.

Trump is a member of the NRA, and his son, Donald Trump Jr., is gun sporting enthusiast who even formed his own gun rights group, the Second Amendment Task Force, that is focused on pushing back against Democrat gun control efforts. Pence, meanwhile, is known to hunt pheasant and quail.

The two havent talked for two years, and often use reporters as proxies to send messages to one another. I have debated Donald Trump before, Pence told Bret Baier last month. Just not with the cameras on.

Trump seems to have noted Pences new tone, telling reporters last month after Pence criticized Trump at the Gridiron Club Dinner over his role in Jan. 6: I guess he decided that being nice isnt working because hes at 3% in the polls, so he figured he might as well not be nice any longer.

Playing nice with Pence has been Trumps strategy of late. The former president has praised Pence when asked about him before noting his unhappiness with Pences decision to carry out his constitutional duties on Jan. 6. That is because Trump, according to advisers and people close to his campaign, believes a crowded field that includes Pence will only work to his benefit in the primaries.

Trumps team has so far brushed off Pences recent attacks and their upcoming shared stage.

Hes clearly not only the frontrunner of this election but hes also the head of the party and the fact that hes the featured speaker is proof of that, said a Trump adviser.

Ralph Reed, who knows both Pence and Trump well and whose organization, Faith and Freedom Coalition, is remaining neutral, compared the Pence-Trump dynamic to the Republican presidential battle in 1912 when two former collaborators, former president Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent President William Howard Taft, ran against each other.

Its two people who were very close who had a tremendous amount of affection for one another and were partners and now theyre running against each other and its going to be a very interesting dynamic to witness, Reed said. I tend to think that Pence will tend to take the high ground while being increasingly frank and transparent about his differences with his former boss. And I think theres a lot that will be litigated as a result of that assuming Pence gets in.

The tension surrounding Trump and Pence sharing two stages this weekend is heightened by the fact that few other 2024 hopefuls are appearing in person.

While Trump and Pence are jumping from state to state to make their case to gun enthusiasts and the partys top donors, DeSantis on Friday will speak at Liberty University encroaching on Pences territory with religious conservatives and headline a GOP dinner in New Hampshire on Saturday. Scott is holding his own donor retreat this weekend in Charleston, and Haley is attending her daughters wedding.

Pence has avoided other cattle calls over the past year where Trump was speaking. For instance, Pence has skipped out on multiple recent CPAC gatherings a stage where he was booed the last time he attended but he also stayed away from last years Faith & Freedom Coalition conference in Nashville, where Trump took the stage. His decision to sit out an event catering to an evangelical audience highlighted Pences reticence at the time to take on Trump in a public manner.

Not so, anymore. But it may be too little too late.

I dont think theres much interest in the story of Trump versus Pence at all anymore, said Mike Dennehy, a Republican strategist in New Hampshire who worked on John McCains presidential campaigns. I would be surprised if Donald Trump even takes a whack at Mike Pence. The only person on Trumps radar right now is Ron DeSantis and frankly, hes the only candidate who should be.

Original post:
The Pence-Trump divide deepens, this time over guns - POLITICO