Pence: Pa. must lead GOP effort for 2020
HARRISBURG — Between boasts about his boss’s accomplishments and the state of the U.S. economy, Vice President Mike Pence took time Thursday evening to recall the night Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016.
As they awaited election results at their campaign headquarters, Mr. Trump would playfully slug his running mate every time a state was called in his favor. When Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes fell into his column, the playful tap “left a mark,” Mr. Pence said with a chuckle.
It might leave a bruise if history repeats itself next year.
“We need Pennsylvania to lead the way to give America four more years of President Donald Trump,” Mr. Pence told a few hundred Pennsylvania Republicans at a fundraising dinner in the ballroom of the Radisson Hotel Harrisburg.
The vice president told them much of what they already believe: that Mr. Trump is a man of action who has gotten two years of results for America.
But his half-hour remarks also foreshadowed a big question Republicans face in 2020 in holding on to states such as Pennsylvania: Although Mr. Pence says the president is negotiating trade deals that put workers first, are those impacts being offset by the administration’s tariff wars?
Hours before Mr. Pence’s speech, U.S. and Mexican officials met for a second day to negotiate a deal to avert Mr. Trump’s proposed tariffs on Mexican goods. The president is planning to impose a 5% tax on Mexican goods Monday in an effort to strongarm Mexico into addressing the flow of Central American migrants heading to the U.S.
Mr. Pence said the sides have “made some progress” in the talks but, as the president said previously, “not nearly enough.” He reiterated the assertion that Mexico must “step up” to stem the tide of illegal immigration.
“I just want to make you a promise,” Mr. Pence said. “This president and this administration are going to continue to stand strong until Mexico takes the action necessary to secure our border.”
If imposed, tariffs on Mexico will affect Pennsylvania. The state imported $6.4 billion of products from Mexico in 2018, the 12th-highest total of any state in the country, according to a New York Times analysis this week.
That didn’t stop Mr. Pence from touting the other economic gains he said Mr. Trump has made in his first two years in office, including signing more bills that cut federal red tape “than any president in American history,” as well as the tax cuts.
In addition to low unemployment rates, Mr. Pence cited statistics about manufacturing jobs — that more than 500,000 have been created since Mr. Trump took office, including 6,000 in Pennsylvania.
“Remember when President Obama was asked in 2016 about manufacturing in America?” Mr. Pence said. “He said, ‘What magic wand do you have?’ We didn’t need a magic wand. We just needed President Donald Trump in the White House.”
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party pounced on Mr. Trump’s record on manufacturing before the event, saying he broke his campaign promise to bring those jobs back to Pennsylvania.
“It’s clear Trump’s campaign promises to create jobs here and support our manufacturing industry were just more of the same empty words we’ve heard from him time and again,” spokesman Brandon Cwalina said. “Instead of looking out for us, Trump and Pence just care about helping their rich and powerful friends, and that’s why Pennsylvania voters will hold this administration accountable in 2020.”