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Posted on 05/18/2025 1:11:58 PM PDT by Freeleesy
Transcripts. Meet the Press – May 18, 2025 Fmr. Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Andrea Mitchell, Amna Nawaz, Stephen Hayes and Ashley Etienne.
May 18, 2025, 11:49 AM EDT. KRISTEN WELKER:
This Sunday: out of office. My exclusive interview with former Vice President Mike Pence.
FMR. VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE:
I've never been a fan of American presidents criticizing America on foreign soil.
KRISTEN WELKER:
His thoughts on the second Trump administration and the direction of the Republican Party.
FMR. VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE:
There's no question in this administration that he is surrounded, it appears to me, with people that -- that nurtured his more protectionist instincts.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Plus: trade tensions. President Trump returns from his trip to the Middle East amid new concerns about his trade war, as the world’s largest retailer warns higher prices are on the way.
[...]
KRISTEN WELKER:
Good Sunday morning. President Trump returns to Washington after his trip to the Middle East, and he is touting what he says are new critical investments in the U.S. economy. It comes as his agenda back home is facing new challenges, and as he's planning for direct phone calls with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine on Monday. Against that backdrop, I sat down with his former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday at his home in Indiana.
[START TAPE]
KRISTEN WELKER:
Let me ask you about President Trump's first official overseas trip to the Middle East --
FMR. VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE:
Yeah.
KRISTEN WELKER:
-- this week, where he met with the newly installed president of Syria. He dropped all of the sanctions against that country despite Israel's opposition. The trip included stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, but he did not stop in Israel. Sir, what message do you think President Trump's trip sent to Israel overall?
FMR. VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE:
Well, first off, I think it was a very successful trip for the American economy. The president secured financial commitments in all three countries, including a historic contract for purchasing Boeing aircraft that'll really support American jobs. And I don't gainsay that. But, Kristen, I've never been a fan of American presidents criticizing America on foreign soil. And to have the president in Saudi Arabia questioning America's global war on terror, and describing it as nation-building and interventionist, I thought was a disservice to generations of Americans who wore the uniform and who took the fight to our enemy, you know, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. And particularly giving that speech in Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers hailed from, not including Osama bin Laden, I thought was unfortunate.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Yeah.
KRISTEN WELKER:
-- this week, where he met with the newly installed president of Syria. He dropped all of the sanctions against that country despite Israel's opposition. The trip included stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, but he did not stop in Israel. Sir, what message do you think President Trump's trip sent to Israel overall?
FMR. VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE:
Well, first off, I think it was a very successful trip for the American economy. The president secured financial commitments in all three countries, including a historic contract for purchasing Boeing aircraft that'll really support American jobs. And I don't gainsay that. But, Kristen, I've never been a fan of American presidents criticizing America on foreign soil. And to have the president in Saudi Arabia questioning America's global war on terror, and describing it as nation-building and interventionist, I thought was a disservice to generations of Americans who wore the uniform and who took the fight to our enemy, you know, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. And particularly giving that speech in Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers hailed from, not including Osama bin Laden, I thought was unfortunate.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Let me ask you about another aspect of President Trump's trip. He said that he was going to accept a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar to use as a temporary Air Force One. He said he'll eventually donate that to his presidential library. Do you think President Trump should accept a military aircraft from Qatar?
FMR. VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE:
Well, I think first we've got to remember who Qatar is. We've got a military base there. I have members of our immediate family that have deployed to the region. But Qatar has a long history of playing both sides. They support Hamas. They supported Al Qaeda. Qatar has actually financed pro-Hamas protests on American campuses across the United States. So, the very idea that we would accept an Air Force One from Qatar I think is inconsistent with our security, with our intelligence needs. And my hope is the president reconsiders it. I think if Qatar wants to make a gift to the United States, they ought to take that $400 million and plow it into infrastructure on our military base.
KRISTEN WELKER:
So you're saying President Trump should turn down this plane?
FMR. VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE:
I think he should. I think -- look, others have observed or there are profound issues, the potential for intelligence gathering, the need to ensure the president of the United States is safe and secure as he travels around the world and of course also there are very real constitutional issues. The Constitution prohibits public officials from accepting a present, in the words of the Constitution, a present from a foreign state. Now they may have some basis through chain of title for avoiding that, but I think it's just a bad idea, and my hope is the president will think better of it.
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Whatever.
White House Denounces Carter for Criticism Abroad
By Norman Kempster
March 21, 1987.
LA Times.
WASHINGTON — President Reagan’s White House staff, rekindling the rancor of the 1980 election campaign, denounced former President Jimmy Carter on Friday for criticizing Administration policy in a speech in Cairo.
“We are deeply disappointed by his comments,” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said. “If he wants to be helpful in the area of foreign affairs, he might want to forgo criticism of U.S. leaders while he’s on foreign soil.”
Listening to Mike Pence will make you dumber.
The clothes Mike Pence wears are smarter than he is.
Doesn’t this dumb, worthless, empty suit, POS realize that most Americans hate his guts?
He’s prefers to trash America here
But he prefers to criticize an American President on American soil.
That’s one thing you’ll never have to worry about doing, butt hole.
The American President has every right to talk trash about the Swamp First/Endless wars/Americans and America Last scum that have inhabited that Oval Office and the DC Govt.
Trump talks up the Nation. A huge cheerleader of America.
Not it’s scum politicians
That’s why he won 3 times
No one cares what you think pansy
All of the important people still pat him on the head so that's what counts to MP.
Trump criticized America?
Nope. Never.
I think this idiotic excuse for a patsy BP is confusing Trump with the idiotic excuse for an American pop star Bruce Springsteen reading some corporate hate message his handlers gave him to read while performing in England.
It’s good that Jim Rob has a no cursing rule.
You could have been somebody special but you folded like a cheap chair when it counted. Nobody cares what you think
Traitor.
Nope. He really is that oblivious.
The irony is so rich with these TDS afflicted deep state stooges.
He is the go to guy for anti -Trump soundbites since he has nothing but criticism.
Disgusting Pence is universally despised, he thinks if he keeps talking somehow his treason will wear thin.
No one ever respects a traitor and no one ever forgets what they did.
The fly tried to tell us...
well, I’ve never been a fan of Mike Pence...
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