(The Center Square) - Former Vice President Mike Pence recalled how Democrats and Republicans put aside their differences 25 years ago on 9/11.
On that day in 2001, Pence, then a freshman U.S. House member from Indiana, was with his staff in the Longworth House Office Building, where they were discussing the two jets crashing into the World Trade Center’s two towers in New York City.
“At the same moment, my assistant dropped the phone and shrieked, ‘The Pentagon’s been hit!’ We were in an office less than a mile away from the Pentagon,” Pence told Melissa Giller, chief marketing and cultural programming officer with the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Institute. They were on stage Wednesday evening before an audience of several hundred people at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif.
“I knew instinctively that we should get our staff, get all these young people out of the building," Pence said. "But first we took a moment and prayed for the people in New York, prayed for the families at the Pentagon, many of whom we knew.”
Pence met with other lawmakers in the Capitol police chief’s office, where Pence said he and others looked out a window and wondered whether the Capitol dome would remain standing in face of a potential jet crashing into it. The police chief took a call, got off the phone and told lawmakers a jet was 12 minutes away.
But after 12 minutes went by, no jet approached the Capitol, and Pence and other lawmakers learned about passengers fighting the hijackers for control of the cockpit of United Airlines Flight 93. During the struggle, the Boeing jet crashed.
“The news produced reports that the airplane had gone down near Shanksville (Pa.). It’s what happened in that moment that has been a great source of hope for me. In that moment, there were no more Republicans, no more Democrats, in the room. There were just Americans," Pence said. "And people started taking their jackets off, rolling their sleeves up, taking out yellow pads and figuring out what Congress would need to do to get the homeland secure, to change the schedule of Congress.
“That spirit animated Washington, D.C., for months to follow. The next months, we saw news accounts that in every big city and small town in America, there were lines around the block at recruiting stations. Men and women stepped up to put on the uniform of the United States and defend this country. And many of them are still standing watch today,” said Pence, whose son joined the U.S. Marine Corps and son-in-law served in the Navy.
Pence, who has lived in his home state of Indiana with his wife Karen since leaving the White House in 2021, talked about Washington, D.C. in the past and the present at the Reagan Library, where he promoted his new book, “What Conservatives Believe.”
“The truth is I wrote this book because in some respects, Republicans have lost their way,” Pence said, adding, with his eyes getting wider, “But Democrats have lost their minds.”
Audience members laughed.
Pence said that during the five years since he last spoke at the Reagan Library, Democrats have openly embraced socialists for candidates and Republicans have leaned toward populism and isolationism, “pulling back on America’s role in the world.” He pointed to the second Trump administration embracing protectionist policies “like the broad-based tariffs that the president imposed on friends and foes alike a year ago.”
Pence also criticized the federal government for not doing enough to protect the right to life because of its stance that abortion is a matter best left to the states.
“But let me say emphatically, there’s a lot I think the new Trump administration has gotten right,” Pence said. “I want to commend President Trump and the Republicans in Congress for securing the southern border of the United States of America.”
The audience applauded.
“I want to commend the president and the Republicans in Congress for extending all of those Trump-Pence tax cuts that we passed, which have been a bulwark for growth in our economy.”
There was another burst of applause.
Pence also praised Trump, who he called a good listener, for supporting a $4.5 trillion military budget to support the troops and meet current global demands. “Standing up to Iran like no administration has ever done before and standing up without apology for our most cherished ally, Israel, are all a credit to the new Trump administration.”
But Pence stressed he has no regrets for performing his constitutional role as vice president in presiding over the certification of the Electoral College results showing Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.
“I’m incredibly proud of our record,” Pence said. “It didn’t end the way I wanted it to, but I always believe that by God’s grace, I did my duty that day in January of 2021.”
The audience applauded.
The Center Square reached out to the White House Thursday for its reaction to Pence’s comments, but did not hear back by publication time.
