WASHINGTON ― Amid reports that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign is in a fatal tailspin, his running mate, Mike Pence, defended Trump’s string of gaffes on Sunday and insisted the two could still win.
“I couldn’t be more honored to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with” Trump, Pence told host Chris Wallace on Fox News.
Last week, Trump called President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton the “co-founders of ISIS,” then tried to walk that statement back, describing it as “sarcasm”― a defense Trump’s campaign has used many times to neutralize his offensive comments. Wallace asked Pence whether the “sarcasm” argument was getting old.
“I don’t think it’s getting old at all, Chris,” Pence said. “Donald Trump made his way through a very competitive primary because he spoke not like your typical politician, but just plainly, like your everyday American. And speaking plainly is exactly what the American people will anticipate in the course of this election, but more importantly, they’re going to have a president who tells the American people exactly what’s on his mind. And the American people are going to hear him and hear him loudly.”
Trump’s poll numbers have been tanking since he had one of the worst weeks a U.S. presidential candidate has ever experienced on the campaign trail. He booted a mother with a crying baby from a political rally, insulted Ghazala Khan, a Muslim American woman who lost her son in the Iraq War, and said that if his daughter Ivanka were sexually harassed at work, he would expect her to just “find a new career.”
Pence said he is still “very confident” that he and Trump can win.
“Stay tuned,” Pence said. “It’s still early in this campaign.”
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.
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