On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, Vice President Mike Pence appeared and was forced to answer if Donald Trump has a heart. Author and journalist Mark Halperin wondered, “There’s a lot of skepticism in parts of America that he has a heart at all, let alone let alone a big one.”
The segment began with hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski exchanging pleasantries and asking Pence about his thoughts on Trump’s State of the Union address. Scarborough started by inquiring, “I think from everything that we have heard, though, this was a very inclusive process. It was driven by the President who wanted to hear from a lot more voices. Steven Miller took all of that and it was quite a different speech. Tell us what was behind that?” Pence answered with:
It was a great speech and a great night for America. What the American people saw last night is the President that I serve with every day. Broad shoulders, big heart, reaching out, focusing on the future. That is President Donald Trump. And to see him get the reception that he got, not only in the chamber last night where you were, Joe, but also all over the country as of this morning, it gives me great confidence that the agenda that the President articulated last night is the right agenda for America. It's resonating with the American people and I couldn't be more optimistic about the opportunity to move forward.
Halperin opened his questions with this:
I was going to ask you about policy but I want to ask you about something you said. You referred to the President's big heart. I know in the Pence family it seems like you've known Donald Trump forever, but it's not been very long. You've been exposed to him and seen what you call his big heart. People who have known him for years have talked about it. I think the three of us have seen that. Why was he able to show that last night and how does he show that to more people over a longer period of time? Because, as you know, there’s a lot of skepticism in parts of America that he has a heart at all, let alone let alone a big one.
Scarborough added onto this question saying, “And lot of division from a lot of things that he's said over the past year and a half.” Pence responded to each of them:
Well I think that’s why one of the really great moments last night was when the President, right at the outset, acknowledged that we have great division on policies but there are things that unite us in this country in the way we condemn acts of hatred and referring to the terrible acts of anti-Semitism. It was a wonderful moment of unity and I think it spoke about the heart of this man. But I will tell you, Mark, I would take a little issue. I think the reason why you saw the movement around the country, the reason why you saw the historic victory that President Trump had...is because I think the American people heard his heart...This is a very strong man. He’s a very strong leader and broad shoulders and speaks his mind, but you saw the heart of this President last night.
Scarborough continued with his earlier thought, adding: “Mika, that’s been one of our frustrations and we have aired it on TV, that. . .You meet him in person. He is very charming. He hasn't shown that enough. Some people think he showed it last night.” Brzezinski retorted, “To take it a step further, I'd like to ask, because these are the parts of what we have seen so far that doesn't seem real. Is the war on the media over? Are we going to hear the words fake news anymore? Or is that page turned?”
Pence replied: “Well I think what you have in this President – and frankly, all of us in the administration, is a willingness to call out the media when they play fast and loose with the facts” Brzezinski interrupted the Vice President saying, “ He called us the enemy of the people. It's pretty strong terminology.” Pence, trying to answer, said: “Yeah. Well Mika, I think you see some of the– baseless and fabricated stories that have come out and been treated with great attention. It's frustrating.”
Scarborough interrupted this time: “Right but you know enemies of the people, that’s a Stalinist term.” Brzezinski chimed in again with, “Blocking media -- are we going to see that still? Or– ” Finishing her thought, Scarborough interjected, “Was that a turning point– He's moving away from that sort of rhetoric?”
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Here is the full transcript of the exchange on March 1
MSNBC -Morning Joe
6:30 SegmentMIKA BRZEZINSKI: Joining us now, the Vice President of the United States Mike Pence with us on set. Great to have you this morning.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Mr. Vice President, thank you for being with us.
MIKE PENCE: Good morning
JOE SCARBORUGH: You know we- - Obviously, as Mika and I have been trying to tell people for a very long time, who is the last person in the room? Donald Trump is always the last person in the room.
MIKE PENCE: That's right.
SCARBORUGH: I think from everything that we have heard, though, this was a very inclusive process. It was driven by the President who wanted to hear from a lot more voices. Steven Miller took all of that and it was quite a different speech. Tell us what was behind that?
PENCE: Well, first off, it was just -- it was a great speech and a great night for America. What the American people saw last night is the President that I serve with every day. Broad shoulder, big heart, reaching out, focusing on the future. That is President Donald Trump. And to see him get the reception that he got, not only in the chamber last night where you were, Joe, but also all over the country as of this morning, it gives me great confidence that the agenda that the President articulated last night is the right agenda for America, it's resonating with the American people, and I couldn't be more optimistic about the opportunity to move forward, our agenda, to repeal and replace ObamaCare, to reform the tax codes, to have better and smarter trade deals ,infrastructure, rebuilding our military. It just struck me as a moment where President Donald Trump stepped up, told the American people where he wants to go and millions of Americans said yes.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Definitely some openings for Democrats there. And some reason for them to maybe step up and try and figure out how to work together, which you know the President was concerned about. Very high up in the speech, I heard the President talk about access to capital for women, really high up. I know Ivanka and Dina Powell have been working with them–
PENCE: You bet
BRZEZINSKI: And you've been working with them as well. How much influence did the three of you have on working on getting that in the speech and what now, what’s the how with that?
PENCE: Well, I just want to be very clear. Both of you know the President.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
PENCE: And this--
BRZEZINSKI: Well we haven't talked about that too much before.
PENCE: It was all him. This was all him
SCARBORUGH: Yeah, all him, right.
PENCE: But, clearly, to know the President's leadership style is he leads by asking questions. And not just in the process of putting a speech together, but literally in leading an administration the way he was so successful in business and, you know, there are many voices, suggestions about things that could be in the speech, but at the end of the day, he was literally -- he was literally rewriting this speech on the afternoon before he gave it.
SCARBORUGH: Well, actually, what we heard last night, we will go to Mark Halpern next, Mark we heard last night that even 30 minutes before he was going on, they were still redrafting this speech. It reminded me a lot of the stories I heard– Willie Geist, about Bill Clinton, where it was fast and furious and they were still changing all the way over to the chamber—
Willie Geist, TV’s Willie Gesit, are you there?WILLIE GESIT: Yes. Joe, I'm here. Sorry– We weren't connected there. Yeah. I’m hearing the same thing you heard as well is that the President was drafting it right until the end. Extraordinary that not much of it leaked. That is another side to the story. And that he wanted to control exactly what he was saying last night. Again, the core message was there, but he crafted it in his own way to be sure.
SCARBORUGH & BRZEZINSKI: Mark Halpern?
MARK HALPERIN: I was going to ask you about policy but I want to ask you about something you said. You referred to the President's big heart. I know in the Pence family it seems like you've known Donald Trump forever, but it's not been very long. You've been exposed to him and seen what you call his big heart. People who have known him for years have talked about it. I think the three of us have seen that. Why was he able to show that last night and how does he show that to more people over a longer period of time? Because, as you know, there’s a lot of skepticism in parts of America that he has a heart at all, let alone let alone a big one.
SCARBORUGH: And lot of division from a lot of things that he's said over the past year and a half.
PENCE: Well I think that’s why one of the really great moments last night was when the President, right at the outset, acknowledged that we have great division on policies but there are things that unite us in this country in the way we condemn acts of hatred and referring to the terrible acts of anti-semitism. It was a wonderful moment of unity and I think it spoke about the heart of this man. But I will tell you, Mark, I would take a little issue. I think the reason why you saw the movement around the country, the reason why you saw the historic victory that President Trump had, 30 out of 50 states, winning hundreds of counties that President Obama had actually won twice, is because I think the American people heard his heart. One of our guests in the gallery, it was right after the speech last night, looked at the President, we were taking a few pictures afterwards and she looked at him and said, "You're so real!" I said he is. He is every day. And– that’s not to take away from it. This is a very strong man. He’s a very strong leader and broad shoulders and speaks his mind but you saw the heart of this President last night.
SCARBORUGH: Mika, that’s been one of our frustrations and we have aired it on TV, that the Donald Trump that– Craig Melvin said he saw and just, you know, in a five-minute interview, in the first meeting, a very charming guy. You meet him in person. He is very charming. He hasn't shown that enough. Some people think he showed it last night.
BRZEZINSKI: Well- -to take it a step further, I'd like to ask, because these are the parts of what we have seen so far that doesn't seem real, is the war on the media over? Are we going to hear the words fake news anymore? Or is that page turned?
PENCE: Well I think what you have in this President – and frankly, all of us in the administration, is a willingness to call out the media when they play fast and loose with the facts.
BRZEZINSKI: He called us the enemy of the people. It's pretty strong terminology.
PENCE: Yeah. Well Mika, I think you see some of the– baseless and fabricated stories that have come out and been treated with great attention. It's frustrating.
SCARBOROUGH: Right but you know enemies of the people, that’s a Stalinist term.
BRZEZINSKI: Blocking media -- are we going to see that still? Or is that --
PENCE: Well look, I think you are going --
SCARBOROUGH: Was that a turning point– He's moving away from that sort of rhetoric?
PENCE: I think one of the reasons why President Donald Trump was elected is because he is a fighter. The American people want a President who will fight for their future, who will fight for American jobs, fight to make America strong in the world again but he also, you know he’s willing to make his case and to challenge his detractors when unfair criticisms come his way.
SCARBOROUGH: ObamaCare, is that going to be the first thing you all tackle? Or are you going to do tax reform?
PENCE: It's right out of the box.
SCARBOROUGH: ObamaCare is?
PENCE: ObamaCare is.
SCARBOROUGH: But could you be walking into the same trap that President Obama walked into? Because that’s certainly what Democrats– Last night, the Democrats I talked to said, you want to tackle that first? Lots of luck. We tried it for a year and a half.
PENCE: Well, the President said the easier political thing to do would be to just let it go. Good heavens. It's imploding in states around the country. But it's hurting the American people. It's hurting American families. And so what you saw last night was the President step up. He made the case against ObamaCare that this is a failed policy that needs to be repealed. But also you saw him do what great presidents do and that is he laid out the principles and the framework for replacing ObamaCare one item after another. That now has created the guardrails. We have been in discussion since the day after the election virtually with leaders in the congress about what repeal and replace looks like. The President met this weekend with governors from around the country to speak about the state's role in this. And that process is going to continue, but for the president to do what he did last night, to show his determination for a better health care system and then tell the congress, here is the framework of what I want you to send me to create better outcomes for the American people, was exactly the kind of leadership the American people wanted to see.
BRZEZINSKI: Vice President Mike Pence, thank you so much for coming in so early this morning. Very nice to have you on the show.
