INDIANAPOLIS — Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, seen as a potential White House contender, has tried to appear to the right of Donald Trump, his former boss and the top Republican candidate for president in 2024.
Speaking at the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual conference on Friday, Pence called for an armed officer in every school and for faster executions of mass shootings.
However, when he took the stage in Indianapolis to speak at a conference of the nation’s largest organization advocating for the rights of citizens to own guns, there was an uproar and hisses in the room, indicating that Pence will have an uphill battle with Trump supporters for the Republican Party nomination.
“I love you too,” Pence joked, before recounting his gun rights credentials and promising he would never let the “liberal motherfuckers” win. He tried to contrast Trump, who some gun enthusiasts accuse of not caring deeply about gun rights.
“I think it’s time to introduce federal death penalty legislation with expedited appeals so that those who commit mass shootings are executed in months, not years,” Pence told an audience. hundreds of people, many wearing T-shirts with Trump symbols. and red baseball caps.
Pence, who criticized Trump for attacking his supporters’ Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, received scant applause during his speech, and when he finished, the room was once again filled with disapproval.
Trump, who was enthusiastically endorsed by the NRA in 2016 even before he was officially announced as the Republican presidential nominee, spoke at a conference later Friday. He began his speech by condemning the policies of the Biden administration, which he called “crazy” and again accused of electoral fraud.
“They are trying to stop their political rivals,” said the 45th President of the United States. – It actually strongly resembles the former Soviet Union, it’s called “Soviet style”. As for the elections, they get involved, that’s what they do.
Donald Trump then addressed the topic of Russia’s nuclear arsenal, attacking the incumbent and saying the following:
“The power of these (nuclear) weapons is very great. I would prefer not to talk about it, but now they talk about it every day, including Putin. He now says publicly: you know, we are a major nuclear power. He never said that when I was (president), because you shouldn’t talk about it, it’s too destructive. Now we are controlled by someone who does not understand what it is at all. Because of our leadership, we are in danger like we have never been before.”
Political scientists say even if the NRA backs Trump again, it’s unlikely to give him the same financial backing it did in the last election: The shooting organization is facing a major New York court case, which became one of the reasons for his declining income. Its leadership has already had to cut election donations.
The nonpartisan research organization OpenSecrets, which tracks campaign finance, cites the following data: While in 2016 the NRA spent about $54.4 million promoting candidates close to it, of which $31.2 million of dollars for the Trump campaign, so in the 2020 election cycle the total amount fell to $29.1 million, most of which was also spent on the Trump campaign.
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