Tag: Pence

Pence moves to claim culture war lane before DeSantis gets there

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Iowa’s Linn-Mar Community School District, which educates close to 8,000 children just northeast of Cedar Rapids, is now at the center of a Republican school takeover campaign. And Pence and conservative groups are fighting in court to stop the school system from enforcing a policy that directs educators to protect the gender identities of their students on campus, raising questions about whether families have a right to know about their child’s requests.
The lawsuit showcases Pence’s culture-driven education agenda and dovetails with his decades-long focus on everything from railing about adultery to criticizing Disney’s “Mulan” in the 1990s. Most of all, the case is tied to a state in the American heartland still crucial to the Republican presidential nominating calendar.
While the conservative Parents Defending Education organization launched the lawsuit last year, the Pence-backed Advancing American Freedom organization and a coalition of Christian groups have filed legal briefs similarly opposed to the school district’s policy. A group of Republican state attorneys general have also supported halting the policy in court.
But the legal battle is also the focus of a Pence political initiative — funded with an initial budget of $1 million — that aides say will utilize digital advertising, rallies and volunteer advocacy efforts to advocate for parental rights policies.
The focus, as Pence characterized it, is a broader battle over young people that has engulfed schools and colleges.
“We’re told that we must not only tolerate the left’s obsessions with race and sex and gender but we must earnestly and enthusiastically participate or face severe consequences,” Pence said Wednesday. “Nowhere is the problem more severe, or the need for leadership more urgent, than in our public school classrooms.”
Prominent Democrats and LGBTQ advocacy groups denounced the Pence-style agenda on Wednesday, a sign that disagreements over what children learn and who they are will fuel both parties in the runup to 2024.
“It’s disappointing that someone who professes a deep love for the U.S. Constitution would so venomously assault the rights of the most marginalized,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “Sadly, Mike Pence is mimicking the Trump-DeSantis playbook, rather than blazing a path that builds on the patriotism and courage he demonstrated on January 6, 2021, to thwart the overthrow of our democracy.”

Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, during his budget address Wednesday, said the “real intention” of the broader conservative ideological battle “is to marginalize people and ideas they don’t like.”
Correct pronouns can be a lifesaving prospect for transgender and nonbinary youth, who are more vulnerable than their peers to suicidal ideations, according to The Trevor Project’s 2022 report on LGBTQ youth mental health. The suicide risk is higher for LGBTQ kids ages 13 to 17, the group’s survey found.
“The only thing radical is to suggest that schools have a duty to forcibly out transgender students to their parents, without regard to their safety, and to turn a blind eye to harassment by their peers, in the name of free speech,” said Peter Renn, senior counsel at the Lambda Legal gay rights organization.
Pence is comfortable in this space, dating back to his time as a talk radio show host and columnist, when he criticized “Mulan” for depicting women in the military. As governor of Indiana, his education agenda focused primarily on advancing charter schools and vouchers.
Last year, Pence issued what he called a “freedom agenda” that included “patriotic education” for high school students to have knowledge of the Federalist Papers and the Constitution. But it was the battle over his Religious Freedom and Restoration Act — a measure that critics said would have resulted in the LGBTQ discrimination — that became one of the hallmarks of his gubernatorial administration. The episode caused Indiana to lose $60 million in convention business.
Then, in April 2022, the Linn-Mar Community School District board approved policies and regulations intended to support students who are transgender, nonbinary or questioning their gender identity. The policy would allow affected students to ask administrators or counselors for a “Gender Support Plan,” and let students agree whether their parents or guardians would be part of subsequent meetings to discuss the request.
The policy would have teachers ask students how they wanted to be addressed in class and in communications with their families. It noted that “intentional” or “persistent” refusals by staff and other students to respect a student’s gender identity would violate school anti-bullying and harassment rules.
Linn-Mar’s policy also stated that parents and guardians would have the right to review their student’s education records, in accordance with federal law.
Parents Defending Education filed a federal lawsuit in August on behalf of seven unnamed parents who alleged the policy violated their constitutional rights by depriving them of information related to their students, and control over decisions related to their gender identity, while also threatening to illegally discipline students based on their speech.
A federal district court judge in September rejected a request to halt the policy while the lawsuit proceeded in court, prompting an appeal to an 8th Circuit panel that was heard Wednesday.
“I believe it’s an issue, not that the majority of the American people stand with us on, but I think it’s got to be almost every parent in America,” Pence said Wednesday. “You do not craft a gender transition plan for my child without my knowledge or consent. I believe the American people believe that.”
Pence’s path to his party’s nomination centers on reaching Evangelical conservatives in Iowa and South Carolina, early primary states where he has lavished voters and activists with attention. After making the Minneapolis speech, he traveled to Cedar Rapids, where he rallied with parents in opposition to policies like the Linn-Mar Community School District’s. The school district did not respond to requests for comment.
Pence’s splash in eastern Iowa likely resonates in that part of the state, where coverage of the parental rights movement has saturated local media, said David Kochel, a veteran Iowa Republican strategist.
“The fact that he’s moving towards the race and he’s in Iowa as opposed to Tallahassee, it’s more intentionally political in terms of the ’24 race,” Kochel said. “He’s taking advantage of an opportunity in Iowa that DeSantis has chosen not to take advantage of yet, but they’re gonna end up in basically the same place on the issue.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 16, 2023
Pence confirms he will fight Justice Department subpoena

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Pence said he expected Trump would also move to quash the subpoena on the basis that it intrudes on executive privilege by seeking details of conversations between him and Trump.
“My understanding is that President Trump will assert that. That’s not my fight,” Pence said. “My fight is on the separation of powers.”
POLITICO reported on Tuesday that Pence planned to fight a grand jury subpoena issued recently by Smith and that the challenge would not be based on executive privilege but instead on the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause. That language has been interpreted to give broad legal protections to senators and House members, as well as members of their staffs.
How, if at all, it applies to Pence is uncertain. He’s expected to claim that he was acting in a legislative capacity as president of the Senate on Jan. 6, so forcing him to answer questions about that subject would violate the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
“My fight against the DOJ subpoena, very simply, is on defending the prerogatives that I had as president of the Senate to preside over the joint session of Congress on January 6th,” the former vice president said.
Pence, who is mulling entering the 2024 presidential race and effectively pitting himself against his former boss, appears to also be seeking to accomplish a kind of political straddle. Fighting the subpoena could endear him to some Trump backers, while also appealing to hard-core constitutionalists who consider themselves Republicans but are steadfastly opposed to Trump.
During his comments to reporters on Wednesday, Pence reiterated that he believed Trump was “wrong” to repeatedly pressure him — in public and private — to overturn the election on Jan. 6. Trump pushed Pence to use his perch as president of the Senate to refuse to count electoral votes for Joe Biden, a final desperate bid by Trump to remain in power despite losing the election.
But Pence heeded legal advice that he had no unilateral power to reject slates of electors from states where Biden had prevailed.

Pence also said that “reckless” rhetoric by Trump endangered him and his family, who had to flee the mob for hours.
“It’s also wrong to establish a precedent where a legislative official could be called into a court by an executive branch,” he said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 16, 2023
Pence to fight special counsel subpoena on Trump’s 2020 election denial

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“He thinks that the ‘speech or debate’ clause is a core protection for Article I, for the legislature,” said one of the two people familiar with Pence’s thinking, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss his legal strategy. “He feels it really goes to the heart of some separation of powers issues. He feels duty-bound to maintain that protection, even if it means litigating it.”
Pence’s planned argument comes on the heels of an FBI search of two of his homes after his attorney voluntarily reported classified material in his home last month — drawing him into a thicket of document-handling drama that’s also ensnared Trump and President Joe Biden. While Pence aides say he’s taking this position to defend a separation of powers principle, it will allow him to avoid being seen as cooperating with a probe that is politically damaging to Trump, who remains the leading figure in the Republican Party.
Pence is preparing to launch a presidential campaign against his onetime boss. Aides expect the former vice president to address the subpoena — and his plans to respond it — during a visit to Iowa on Wednesday.
But regardless of its political consequences, the argument from Pence’s camp means Smith could be in for a legal mess.
That’s because the legal question of whether the vice president draws the same “speech-or-debate” protections as members of Congress remains largely unsettled, and constitutional scholars say Pence raising the issue will almost certainly force a court to weigh in. That could take months.
“It is admittedly a constitutionally murky area with no clear outcome,” said Mark Rozell, a George Mason University political scientist who specializes in executive privilege. “Since there is a legislative function involved in the vice president presiding over the Senate, a court very well could decide that it must address the scope of the speech or debate privilege and whether it would apply in this case.”
Although vice presidents aren’t technically senators, they are charged with breaking tie votes in the upper chamber. And every four years, on Jan. 6, they lead the electoral vote count that facilitates the transfer of power from one administration to the next. Trump’s months-long crusade to pressure his vice president to derail Biden’s win — which is central to Smith’s investigation — focused entirely on Pence’s duties as Senate president, which legal scholars say lends credence to Pence’s case.
“I do think there’s a plausible [speech or debate] argument here,” echoed Josh Chafetz, a Georgetown University constitutional law professor. “And I’d be surprised if Pence doesn’t eventually make it. After all, a lot of the action here took place in terms of arguments about how he should rule from the chair.”

The clash arrives at a sensitive moment in Smith’s probe, which appears to be nearing its conclusion. Typically, prosecutors wait to subpoena top officials until right before making charging decisions. In addition to the demand for Pence’s testimony, a parade of high-level Trump administration witnesses has marched into the sealed grand jury rooms of Washington’s federal courthouse in recent weeks.
And it presents a new wrinkle for Pence as he makes moves typical of a White House hopeful, including his trip to Iowa this week. After confronting the 2020 election head-on late last year with a book and op-ed, he’s largely avoided a topic that risks courting confrontation with his former boss and possible future presidential opponent.
Most commentary since Smith subpoenaed Pence has focused on whether Trump might prevent Pence from testifying by asserting executive privilege — an unwritten constitutional protection that lets presidents maintain the confidentiality of high-level conversations (a Trump attorney told CNN Sunday that Trump intends to assert executive privilege over Pence’s testimony).
But seeking congressional immunity would further help Pence avoid a Trump collision and might prove more effective — a point legal scholars say is being overlooked. That’s because unlike executive privilege, which has limits that can be overcome in criminal proceedings, “speech or debate” clause protections have remained mostly impenetrable in investigations relating to the official duties of lawmakers, their aides or other congressional officials.
DOJ has, notably, argued in civil litigation that the “speech or debate” clause protects the vice president when working on Senate business. The department explicitly asserted in 2021 that Pence was shielded by the “speech or debate” clause in a civil lawsuit related to his role presiding over Congress’ Jan. 6 session.
The Senate, too, has long maintained that vice presidential involvement in its business “would fall within the legislative sphere and be protected by the speech or debate Clause.”
Courts have never explicitly ruled on that front, but have hinted over the years that vice presidents should enjoy some level of constitutional privilege stemming from their unique role in two branches of government.
A ‘first time’ argument
Roy Brownell, former counsel to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and author of a prominent paper on vice presidential privilege, said that if Pence ultimately asserts “speech or debate” protections, it will be “the first time it’s ever been clearly expressed that the vice president is claiming his own constitutional privilege.”
Even when Dick Cheney sought to expand the powers of the vice presidency to a historically unprecedented degree — triggering numerous court battles — he never formally invoked the protection, Brownell noted.
Brownell also emphasized that court rulings have found that “speech or debate” protection applies to congressional officials performing “fact-finding” related to their jobs. Pence, he said, could characterize his pre-Jan. 6 conversations with Trump and others as research into how he might rule on matters related to the Electoral College.
It’s still unresolved whether the Jan. 6 session of Congress legally counts as “legislative” business, however. In addition, even if courts deem Pence’s role a legislative one, judges would still have to decide whether the “speech or debate” clause protects him from having to testify about his conversations with Trump world about the bid to upend the election.
“It’s a fair question,” said Stan Brand, who was general counsel of the House of Representatives under former Speaker Tip O’Neill. “Procedurally, it creates another layer of potential judicial adjudication and that will certainly complicate the effort to enforce the subpoena.”
Some experts pointed to the recent 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that paved the way for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to testify to local investigators in Georgia — who are also probing Trump’s effort to subvert the election. Graham initially protested, contending the “speech or debate” protection should shield him from testifying at all.
But the circuit ruled that Graham could be compelled to testify so long as investigators steered their questions away from anything involving his legislative responsibilities. The Supreme Court declined to step in.
Pence may ultimately land in the same place, but it’s unclear which aspects of his involvement in the Jan. 6 session of Congress would fall outside of his official duties. High-level Trump administration witnesses, as they warned the then-president not to pressure Pence over how he counted electoral votes, made clear they viewed him as occupying a uniquely legislative role on Jan. 6.
“The Vice President is acting as the President of the Senate,” former assistant attorney general Steven Engel recalled telling colleagues in testimony to the Jan. 6 select committee. “It is not the role of the Department of Justice to provide legislative officials with legal advice on the scope of their duties.”
The counterpoint
Not all legal scholars agree that vice presidents enjoy congressional privileges, however. Former White House counsel Neil Eggleston said the text of the “speech or debate” clause doesn’t apply to anyone but lawmakers.
“The literal language is that this applies to ‘senators and representatives,’” said Eggleston, who advised former President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2017. “I think, by the language, this does not apply and the argument is completely frivolous.”
Still, predicting exactly how courts would handle the argument is difficult. The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the executive privilege wielded by presidents, despite the Constitution making no reference to the concept.
Meanwhile, the GOP House is fighting a grand jury proceeding of its own against Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who is citing the same constitutional protections to shield his communications from Smith and his team.
Perry, a key ally in Trump’s bid to seize a second term, has contended the “speech or debate” clause should bar prosecutors from accessing his phone — which the FBI seized last year — but a federal judge ruled against him in December. An appeals court secretly put that ruling on hold last month and scheduled oral arguments on the matter for Feb. 23. The House filed a lengthy brief Monday to defend Perry’s argument.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 14, 2023
Pence is subpoenaed in special counsel probe of Jan. 6

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Pence was the target of Trump’s last-ditch bid to derail the transfer of power to Joe Biden, leaning on his then-vice president to prevent Congress from counting electoral votes that would affirm Biden’s victory.
Pence resisted the effort, drawing Trump’s fury, even as a mob on Jan. 6, 2021, violently attacked and breached the Capitol, where Pence had been presiding over the electoral vote count.
One advantage for Smith in pursuing Pence’s testimony is that Pence has sought to publicly describe his private interactions with Trump during the chaotic weeks before Jan. 6. Pence wrote about it in his recently released book, indicating he had directly told Trump that even his own lawyers didn’t think courts would support his plan to have Pence single-handedly overturn the results.
Two of Pence’s top aides — Marc Short and Greg Jacob — have already testified to the grand jury and are the subject of ongoing secret legal proceedings pending before the federal courts related to Trump’s effort to assert privilege over their testimony. Both men also testified at length to the Jan. 6 select committee last year and provided crucial evidence that a federal judge said pointed to “likely” crimes committed by Trump.
The subpoena has the potential to trigger an executive privilege fight if Trump or Pence ask a judge to rule that some or all of their testimony should be off limits to prosecutors and the grand jury in order to protect White House deliberations.
Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped Smith to serve as a special counsel shortly after the midterm elections in November and following an announcement by Trump that he would be a candidate for president in 2024. Smith’s mandate includes not only Jan. 6-related matters and alleged interference with the 2020 presidential election, but also the presence of a range of documents with classification markings at Trump’s Florida home.
Josh Gerstein and Meridith McGraw contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 10, 2023
Mike Pence had classified documents at home, turned them over

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DOJ’s effort to obtain the documents came days after Pence notified the National Archives that he had discovered them at his residence on Jan. 16. Jacob indicated Pence was unaware of the existence of the documents and had enlisted an outside counsel after press reports of the discovery of documents at President Joe Biden’s own personal residence.
The sensitivity of the newly discovered documents is unclear. In his first letter to the Archives, Jacob indicated that Pence’s counsel did not review them “once an indicator of potential classification was identified.”
Pence’s revelation threatens to upend the political landscape on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue. The Biden White House has similarly turned over classified documents to the National Archives that were found in the president’s personal home and an office he used following his stint as vice president. But it has endured withering criticism, including from fellow Democrats, over the existence of those items. And House Republicans have already begun the process of investigating why classified items were discovered in both Wilmington, Del., and the Penn-Biden Center in Washington, D.C.
Revelations that such mistakes are widespread provided Democrats with a sense of inoculation. It also gave them a talking point to contrast Biden’s situation with that of Donald Trump’s, who also had classified documents on his personal property but refused to turn all them over when asked.
“This discovery by Pence’s attorney is a very interesting reinforcement of the contrast between how Biden & Pence are properly cooperating and returning documents versus Trump stealing them, hiding them, and obstructing justice into their return,” said David Brock, president of the Biden-allied group Facts First USA.
The chair of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), showed no immediate indication that he would back off his investigations in the aftermath of the Pence revelations.
“Former Vice President Mike Pence reached out today about classified documents found at his home in Indiana,” Comer said. “He has agreed to fully cooperate with congressional oversight and any questions we have about the matter. Former Vice President Pence’s transparency stands in stark contrast to Biden White House staff who continue to withhold information from Congress and the American people.”
The Biden White House declined to discuss the matter citing a policy of not commenting on ongoing investigations. And Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said he planned to “ask for the same intelligence review and damage assessment” that he had requested regarding Biden, “to see if there are any national security concerns.”

The discovery by Pence nevertheless underscores the haphazard process taken by senior officials in departing presidential administrations. And it left other lawmakers on the Hill befuddled.
“I would have thought over a year ago that the beginnings of this conversation between the archives and President Trump, that anyone who served in any of these roles as president and vice president that are still living would say: Go check your closets,” said Senate Intel Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.).
A request for comment made to Pence’s aides was not returned. Pence had previously said that he had not brought classified documents home with him after leaving the vice presidency.
In the Jan. 22 letter to the Archives, Jacob indicated that before DOJ intervened, Pence had been prepared to return four boxes of materials to the Archives for review. He noted that some of the records, while not classified, were likely to include “courtesy copies” of White House records from his tenure in office.
“I expressed to you my expectation that the substantial majority of the documents in the four boxes would, upon examination, be found to be personal copies of other records that were previously transmitted to the Archives,” Jacob noted.
Jacob indicated he intended to transport the boxes, absent the classified records recovered by DOJ, to the Archives on Jan. 23
“The boxes were sealed at the Vice President’s residence in Indiana, following a final review by the Vice President’s personal attorney during which attorney-client privileged materials related to personal capacity attorneys, and Article I legislative branch materials, were placed in sealed and clearly labeled envelopes,” he wrote.
“All of the documents within the boxes, and within the sealed envelopes, remain in the exact place and order in which they were discovered on January 16. The Vice President is not waiving any privileges pertaining to the clearly labeled materials.”
Jordain Carney and Burgess Everett contributed reporting.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 24, 2023
Pence nabs top Haley staffer

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“I am grateful for my time working with Nikki Haley and her dedicated team,” Chapman said in a statement. “Advancing American Freedom is one of the fastest growing and increasingly influential conservative groups in the nation, and I am thrilled to join the incredible team that is building AAF as a leader for common sense conservative policies that will help restore America.”
Betsy Ankney, the executive director of Haley’s political action committee, responded in a statement: “Tim Chapman is terrific and we’re happy he found a great spot to continue to advocate for conservative policy ideas.”
Chapman joined the Haley team in early 2020 to establish and oversee Stand for America, which served as a platform to help the former UN ambassador promote her policy agenda ahead of an anticipated 2024 campaign. He has a long history in conservative politics, having been a co-founder of Heritage Action, a conservative political action group, and as chief of staff of its allied nonprofit Heritage Foundation.
Chapman was also a top aide to former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint when DeMint established the Senate Conservatives Fund, an organization that backed Senate candidates who often ran to the right of more establishment-aligned contenders in key races.
Chapman’s relationship with Pence dates back to the early 2000s, when Chapman was at the Heritage Foundation and Pence was an Indiana congressman, according to a person close to both of them.
What role Chapman would potentially play in a Pence campaign is unclear. In a statement, the former vice president called Chapman “one of the brightest stars in the conservative movement, and we are so thrilled he’s joining the team to advance the cause of American culture, American opportunity, and American leadership.”
The staff poaching represents the latest turn in a long-simmering rivalry between the Pence and Haley camps. During the 2020 campaign, Pence’s advisers blamed Haley for rumors that she would replace Pence on the ticket. In a forthcoming memoir, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserts that Haley was privately jockeying to push out Pence, though Haley has insisted the claims are “lies and gossip.”
Further complicating the dynamic between Pence and Haley is the long-term overlap between key parts of their teams. Nick Ayers, a Georgia-based political operative, served for a time as Pence’s White House chief of staff and has also advised Haley. Jon Lerner, a longtime Republican pollster, served as an adviser to both Haley and Pence during the Trump administration. Lerner has also been working for Haley as she prepares for the presidential race.

Now, the two appear to be on a collision course. Pence has been on a media tour promoting his newly released memoir, “So Help Me God,” and he has begun building out his political operation.
Haley, meanwhile, teased a potential campaign theme during a Thursday appearance on Fox News. “I think we need a young generation to come in, step up and really start fixing things,” she said. “Can I be that leader? Yes, I think I can be that leader.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 21, 2023