Vice President Mike Pence at a Wednesday event in Florida used President Trump’s record on religious liberty to lambaste Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
“Joe Biden and the radical left are deeply out of step with the American people,” Pence said, referencing widespread Democratic support for “abortion on demand.”
Pence also hit Biden for his flip last year on the Hyde Amendment, which bans federally funded abortions, and for his stance on the Supreme Court’s recent Little Sisters of the Poor decision. Pence attributed Biden’s leftward slide on social issues to “pressure from the radical left.”
Pence pitted Biden’s involvement with the Obama-era contraception mandate against Trump’s executive order lifting the imposition on faith-based groups such as the Little Sisters. Biden was vice president when the mandate was instituted in 2012.
“Fortunately, this president ended the assault on the Little Sisters of the Poor in the Supreme Court by 7-2 — ended it forever,” Pence said.
The decision, released in July, ruled that the Trump administration was constitutionally allowed to lift the mandate on the Little Sisters but left the door open for future administrations to undo that exception. Biden promised to reinstate the mandate.
Because of issues such as the Little Sisters decision and abortion, Pence said that the 2020 election is a moral choice about whether or not “America remains America.”
Prior to his speech, which focused on religious liberty in the Trump era, Pence visited a nearby crisis pregnancy center, making him the first sitting vice president to do so, according to the Susan B. Anthony List. The anti-abortion advocacy group, which threw its support behind Trump’s bid in 2016, hosted Pence at an early afternoon event where he spoke about Trump’s continued commitment to anti-abortion causes.
Pence’s visit came amid a wider appeal to voters in the state, which the Trump campaign has focused hard on in the past month. Pence has visited Florida three times since July.
