UW-La Crosse lands another big political figure in Rep. VP nominee Mike Pence

Pence spoke for 30 minutes and
took questions from the crowd for 15

It was just another day of hosting the nation’s biggest political figures for the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Back in July of 2015, it was President Barack Obama. Thursday, Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence in town speaking in front of an enthusiastic crowd of around 200 at the Cartwright Center – where Hillary Clinton spoke back in 1996.

Pence talked how Donald Trump would fix the economy – referring to Trump’s economic-plan speech Monday. The Indiana governor mentioned cutting taxes multiple times, for “every working family, small business and family farms.”

Pence then added: “To lower corporate taxes so American companies can compete with companies around the world.”

When Pence mentioned Clinton the crowd groaned and booed. 

“The media is so busy lying about Donald Trump, it’s like they don’t have time to tell the Truth about Hillary Clinton,” Pence said.

He talked national security and his disgust with Clinton’s comments from after the 2012 Benghazi attack.

“It was Hillary Clinton, who left Americans in harm’s way in Benghazi,” Pence said. “And, after four Americans fell, she said, ‘What difference at this point does it make?’

“Let me say, as the proud father of a United States marine, anybody that ever said that, anybody that ever did that, should be disqualified of ever serving as Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces.”

The crowd erupted.

Before that, Pence spoke of four other Americans in captivity in Iran that were released back in January, that’s come under scrutiny now.

“We woke and the newspaper told us that in violation of generations of American policy this administration approved the delivery of $400 million in cash the very day that four Americans were released from Iran in captivity,” Pence said. “Let me promise you this, when Donald Trump is president, we won’t be paying ransom to terrorists or terrorists sponsoring states.

“They’ll be paying a price any time they threaten or detain or harm American citizens or our allies.”

Again, the crowd erupted. For the record, Obama stated it was not a ransom. It was a litigated dispute and a payment that was publicly disclosed.

Pence went on to discuss Trump and the Republicans’ version of peace.

“American needs to be strong for the world to be safe,” he said. “We have, all of us, lived in a time where we learned that we can have peace, only through strength.

“And I promise you when Donald Trump becomes president, we will rebuild our military, we will restore America’s strength in the world, we will rebuild our relationships with our allies and we will confront and destroy those who threaten our people and our freedom at their source.”

He also reiterated Trump’s recent comments that Obama was the founder of ISIS and Clinton was its co-founder and talked about those origins.

Pence talked about how Obama and Clinton undid all the “hard fought gains in Operation Iraqi Freedom, that our soldiers won in securing that nation,” he said of the 2003 surprise military invasion of Iraq. 

“When President Obama became president, it’s important to remember that Iraq was essentially stable. And it was Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that withdrew American forces precipitously without, what’s called a ‘status of forces agreement,’ and they created the very vacuum in which ISIS was able to be spawned and conjured up.”

After speaking for about 30 minutes, Pence took questions from five people in the crowd. They asked him about the economy and foreign relations, before 7-year-old Mason Haliburton stole the show. When he got the mic, he asked, “How big is that wall?”

The boy and Pence had funny, brief conversation about attending the rally. The boy said he and his dad drove from Omaha, Neb. 

Pence asked if he drove the entire way. The boy looked at Pence like he was crazy and stated plainly, “No, he did,” pointing to dad next to him.

Pence replied, “I’m glad we cleared that up.”

After the speech Pence shook hands and took pictures. Some people loved Pence before they saw him in person and left with the same feeling. Others wanted to see for themselves, and also left reassured he was right for the job.

Here’s Pence’s entire speech:

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