Pence touts accomplishments, praises Utahns in UVU speech
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- Former Vice President Mike Pence gives a speech as part of the Utah Valley University fall forum on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, in Orem. Pence was the first guest of the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy.
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- Utah Valley University students protest after former Vice President Mike Pence’s speech at the university on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. Pence was the first guest of the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy.
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- Former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and his wife, Jeanette Herbert, greet former Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, before the Utah Valley University fall forum on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. Pence was the first guest of the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy.
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- Hundreds sit in the Noorda Center for Performing Arts Concert Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, for a speech by former Vice President Mike Pence.
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- Former Vice President Mike Pence gives a speech as part of the Utah Valley University fall forum on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. Pence was the first guest of the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy.
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- Cade Bloomer, a Utah Valley University student and intern for the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy, asks a question to former Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022.
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- Utah Valley University students protest former Vice President Mike Pence’s speech at the university on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. Pence was the first guest of the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy.
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- Former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and his wife, Jeanette Herbert, introduce Mike Pence before the Utah Valley University fall forum on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. Pence was the first guest of the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy.
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- Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, right, and first lady Abby Cox listen to former Vice President Mike Pence during the Utah Valley University fall forum on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022.
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- Former Vice President Mike Pence, left, confers with Justin Jones, executive director of the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy, during the Utah Valley University fall forum on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022.
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- Former Vice President Mike Pence gives a speech as part of the Utah Valley University fall forum on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. Pence was the first guest of the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy.
After a 30-minute speech peppered with applause breaks, laugh lines and policy perspectives, students attending former Vice President Mike Pence’s speech at Utah Valley University on Tuesday were given an opportunity to ask a question.
With a preamble about Pence’s career, Cade Bloomer, a UVU student and intern for the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy, asked the most straightforward question of the morning — “Are you running as a candidate in the 2024 presidential election?”
As soon as the laughter died down, Pence was just as direct in his answer. “Cade, I’ll keep you posted.”
Pence spoke at UVU as the first guest of the Herbert Institute. A former member of the U.S. House of Representative and governor of Indiana, Pence became the 48th vice president of the United States as the running mate of former President Donald Trump.
Speaking to a crowd of students, community members and plenty of elected officials, Pence outlined his vision for the country’s future with commentary on the political and social present.
As he did so, dozens of UVU students stood outside of the Noorda Center for the Performing Arts, holding signs admonishing the former vice president and the university for inviting him.
Puck Roth, one of the protest’s organizers and a member of the university’s Progressive Student Alliance, felt inviting Pence went against UVU’s values.
“UVU states it is a place for everyone but we are continuously having speakers like Mike Pence invited to UVU without the other side ever being invited,” Roth said. “When we are inviting people who actively are against the rights of others — that crosses the line of harm.”
According to Roth, people opposed to Pence’s visit have spoken to UVU’s dean of students and hope to still have a conversation with the President’s Cabinet.
Roth, in speaking to the Daily Herald and echoing the signs held by protestors, took aim at Pence’s stances on several issues including LGBTQ rights and abortion. Pence discussed those same policies inside the concert hall.
“In many ways, America today is almost unrecognizable from the days before the worst pandemic in 100 years struck our country. Today, America continues to reel from the aftermath of the COVID pandemic,” Pence said. He listed issues facing Americans — everything from border security and inflation to the national debt — before coming to his main point.
“This is a crisis that strikes at the very heart of our civilization because it includes the erosion of the nuclear family marked by declining marriage rates, rising divorce, plummeting birth rates, the proliferation of extreme ideology,” Pence said. “Americans came to understand it more during the COVID pandemic when kids were studying on a laptop in the kitchen. An ideology that’s affected our schools at every level, colleges, workplace and our culture.”
He later advocated for expanding school choice to allow students to attend public, private, parochial or charter schools, or opt for homeschooling, as the family sees fit.
The centering of conversation around families and children gave Pence room to praise Utahns for their “strong families” and commitment to community before saying “America must put families first.”
He also discussed Herbert’s efforts as governor to repair the state’s economy on the heels of the Great Recession and Utah’s “rich history of religious liberty.”
On abortion, the former vice president was brief and met with robust applause. “After 50 years, 50 years of heartbreak, 50 years of lives of incalculable value ended before they were born. Today at long last, Roe versus Wade has been sent to the ash heap of history where it belongs,” he said.
During the final questions, Pence was asked about the events of Jan. 6, 2021. “Let me be clear, Jan. 6 was a tragic day in the life of our nation, but thanks to the courage of law enforcement, capitol police, federal law enforcement — the violence was quelled. We reconvened the Congress the very same day and we fulfilled our duty under the Constitution.”
On Jan. 6, 2021, hundreds of Trump supporters entered the U.S. Capitol Building, disrupting the counting of electoral votes in an effort to overturn the results of the general election, won by President Joe Biden. Alongside other chants and threats echoing through the Capitol and surrounding areas was one of “hang Mike Pence” — angry he did not use his role presiding over the count to overturn the vote. Pence told the UVU crowd he “couldn’t see” where he would have the power to alter results from states that had been cast and certified.
“There’s almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose which votes to count for the American president,” Pence said. “I thank you for the question, it’s an issue I expect I’ll be talking about for the rest of my life.”
He went on to call the late-night certifying of the vote a “triumph” of freedom.
In attendance for the speech was former second lady Karen Pence, former Gov. Herbert, who introduced and plugged the upcoming memoir of the day’s invited speaker, and his wife, Jeanette Herbert, along with Gov. Spencer Cox, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and a bevy of other elected officials and community members.