Former Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that Republicans loyal to his former boss, President Trump, “strongly support” U.S.-Israeli military action in Iran.
Pence told NewsNation’s Leland Witt on “Balanced” that he favors the United States “getting this done once and for all.”
However, the former vice president also said, “There’s disagreement among some commentators, some online influencers, but I do believe that Republicans, including those who call themselves MAGA Republicans, overwhelmingly support the president’s decision and our troops.”
Pence told Vetter that he didn’t think there was “divisiveness” among the “loudest voices.”
“I mean, what we’re seeing is a surge of isolationist voices on the airwaves and online,” he continued, adding that President Trump “has turned a deaf ear to those isolationist voices and said, ‘No, we’re going to take action. We’re going to unleash American troops.'”
Pence also backed the White House’s call for Iran to surrender unconditionally, saying “we will end this fight once and for all.”
“If we continue to attack Iran’s security infrastructure, I believe it will set the stage for the Iranian people to take back their country,” Pence continued. “Equally important, as Leland does this, I believe the United States has an opportunity to restore the deterrence that was wasted in the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan under President Joe Biden.”
Pence’s comments about isolation echoed online debate over whether Trump’s “America First” policies and conflict with Iran are consistent with isolationist ideas.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said last week that the president’s foreign policy is not isolationism but rather Trump’s “belief that America’s powerful military should be used to protect and defend American interests.”
“‘America First’ means ‘America will be the greatest, unquestionable, unparalleled power in the world,’ which means we will defend American lives,” he added. “Yes, we will avenge the Americans.”
Miller’s comments have been met with backlash, with some arguing that his views contradict historical views of “America First.”
The term was touted by former President Woodrow Wilson and anti-World War I isolationists, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Wilson was a Democrat who built support for staying out of the war during his 1916 re-election campaign. The United States officially declared war the following year.
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