Pence to Nervous Conservatives: Trump a ‘Man of His Word’

Vice President Mike Pence said during an interview Wednesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that Americans got to see Tuesday evening that President Donald Trump is “a man of his word” and will deliver on his core campaign promises.

Speaking the day after the president delivered his first major speech to a joint session of Congress, Pence reassured Trump’s supporters that the president will move forward with his commitments on issues like Obamacare and the wall, despite initial delays.

“The one thing I can tell you after knowing the president for more than a year is that he’s a man of his word.”

“The one thing I can tell you after knowing the president for more than a year is that he’s a man of his word,” Pence told LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham. “And what the American people heard last night — including the tens of millions of Americans who supported our ticket — is that the president laid out his agenda from repealing and replacing Obamacare, tax relief, the military. But he laid out a very clear agenda on ending illegal immigration.”

When asked about the delay on Trump’s rewrite of the initial travel ban executive order, Pence said to expect the new order “in the forthcoming days ahead.”

“We’ll be bringing forward that executive order. But let’s be clear: The president and the administration believe that the first executive order was fully within his authority as president of the United States to take such steps as are necessary to ensure the safety of the American people,” Pence said.

“That being said, the president has directed a team to look at the 9th Circuit [Court] decision, look at other issues, other inputs and at least advance another executive order that will put into place the kind of things that are beyond dispute and are not the subject of legal controversy,” Pence added.

Noting that some have expressed concerns that Trump’s initial draft of his proposed budget will deepen the country’s debt, Ingraham asked Pence if he himself had gone from a renowned “deficit hawk” to a permissive “deficit dove.”

“No, not in the least,” Pence responded. “And let me say, the budget outline — the president’s full budget will be out in a few weeks — the budget outline that was sent to Capitol Hill earlier this week is deficit-neutral.”

“The president is calling for a historic increase in military spending … the president is determined to rebuild our military,” Pence said. “But the outline included commensurate budget cuts in domestic spending to offset that $54 billion increase that he’s calling for.”

Saying that the whole “backstop” of dealing with the country’s trillions of dollars in national debt is to promote economic growth, Pence said that Trump’s proposed tax cuts and dismantling of harmful regulations will reverse the paltry 1-2 percent growth the economy experienced under former President Obama’s leadership.

“The president of the United States, as you heard him reflect last night … he is demanding that our budget team and that Congress sharpen their pencils and make sure that we find our savings,” Pence said. “But ultimately, I truly do believe that meeting these obligations of today, dealing with that mountain range of debt, is all dependent on getting this economy moving again.”

For those concerned that Trump is softening his stance on illegal immigration, Pence reaffirmed that the president’s priority is “the rule of law and enforcing the laws of this country.”

“After all of that’s done, I think his phrase was, ‘We’ll see,'” Pence said of how the president will deal with DREAMers. “But we’re going to focus on border security, internal enforcement, the rule of law and getting criminal aliens out of this country so they can no longer jeopardize our families. That’s the focus.”

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And for those worried over the GOP’s apparent squeamishness in dismantling Obamacare, Pence said the president could not have been clearer in outlining his policy and his commitment to the issue.

“Last night, the president made a commitment to the American people that he made in the course of the campaign that we have to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Pence said. “He made the case … he laid out the flaws of Obamacare, the reality of it, regardless of what the spin is in some corners of the national media — the reality of this failed policy that’s just nothing but a long series of broken promises.”

“But what you heard last night — I think it’s one of the reasons last night’s speech resonated with millions of Americans, Laura — is this president is putting a priority on the safety and security of the American people,” Pence added.