Here’s why Elizabeth Warren disagrees with Joe Biden about Mike Pence
The former vice president said his successor is a "decent guy."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren doesn’t have the same level of deference for Vice President Mike Pence as does his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Campaigning in Iowa over the weekend, the Massachusetts senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate was asked if she agreed with Biden’s recent remark that Pence is a “decent guy.”
“I’m sorry, I followed Pence’s history on LBGTQ Americans and I don’t think that is a decent position,” Warren said Saturday, according to the Des Moines Register.
The Republican vice president has a long history of opposing LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage and allowing openly gay military members, dating back to his time in Congress and as governor of Indiana. But Warren was pressed for her more general opinion of Pence.
“You don’t think the vice president is a decent man?” a reporter reportedly asked.
“No,” Warren responded.
Asked if she thought anyone in the Trump administration was “decent,” Warren said it was a “tough question.” According to the local political outlet Iowa Starting Line, the senator noted that 34 people had been charged so far in the special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. She also pointed out that several members of Trump’s cabinet have resigned due to ethical scandals.
“This is the most corrupt administration in living memory,” Warren added. “That’s why we’ve got to be in this fight.”
FYI, the reporter followed up: “Do you think there’s anybody in the Trump Administration that you would see as decent?”
Elizabeth Warren’s response: pic.twitter.com/h81Bfo8ub4
— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) March 2, 2019
Biden, who is reportedly very close to also joining the crowded field of 2020 Democratic primary candidates, originally called Pence a “decent guy” during a foreign policy speech last week. However, the former vice president walked back his words following vocal criticism from LGBT activists, including actress and former New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon.
You’re right, Cynthia. I was making a point in a foreign policy context, that under normal circumstances a Vice President wouldn’t be given a silent reaction on the world stage.
But there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the Vice President.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 28, 2019
According to CNN, Biden kept in touch with Pence through the first year of his time in office and has spoken collegially about other Trump officials, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. To the dismay of some Democrats, one of the defining characteristics of the former vice president’s recent public appearances has been calls for unity and bipartisanship.
“I don’t know how you get anything done unless we start talking to one another again,” Biden said during a speech in January. “It’s like we’ve divided the country into pieces. How can we be one America if we continue down this road? I don’t care what your party affiliation is.”
In a recent interview, Warren explained why she believes a more adversarial, fight-themed approach to politics can be more effective.
“I find fighting for what you believe in to be enormously hopeful,” she told former Obama adviser David Axelrod, citing her brainchild agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as an example of a reform that faced stiff opposition from powerful banking groups, but overcame it to become an effective consumer watchdog (at least before its powers were undermined by the Trump administration).
“The results matter to people,” Warren said. “That agency has already forced giant financial institutions to return more than $12 billion directly to people it cheated. It’s handled a million and a half complaints. It’s government that actually works for real people. And that happened not just because I fought for it, but because a lot of people fought for it.”
