Former Vice President Mike Pence revealed what he told President-elect Donald Trump when they spoke for the first time in four years.
Pence and Trump both attended former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral in Washington, D.C., this past week. The two shared a handshake and exchange of words, causing buzz on social media. Pence, who declined to endorse Trump in the November election, said the meeting was cordial.
“The opportunity to speak to the president yesterday is something that I appreciated, I welcomed,” Pence told Christianity Today. “I’ve really been blessed at how much I’ve heard from people around the country who saw [our] handshake, and in that handshake, saw some hope that we might be moving past those difficult days. That’s certainly my hope.”
“He greeted me when he came down the aisle. I stood up, extended my hand. He shook my hand. I said, ‘Congratulations, Mr. President,’ and he said, ‘Thanks, Mike,’” Pence said.
But his meeting with the president-elect, the first since January 2021 when rioters attempted to stop Pence from certifying the election, wasn’t the only interaction that drew speculation. Pence’s wife, Karen, appeared to entirely snub Trump, opting to not shake his hand or even stand when he and Melania approached.
“You’d have to ask my wife about her posture, but we’ve been married 44 years, and she loves her husband, and her husband respects her deeply,” Pence said.
During the interview, which will air on a podcast this coming week, Pence also discussed Trump’s Cabinet nominees. Trump has received mixed reactions to the choices, which include a combination of fairly mainstream nominations as well as controversial ones.
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Pence, like some other social conservatives, expressed opposition to Trump’s pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Pence said that Kennedy lacks qualifications for the role and noted that he supports abortion rights.
The former vice president also said he was concerned about former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) being nominated for director of national intelligence. Gabbard notoriously met with ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2017 and Pence expressed concern with her “willingness to essentially be an apologist for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin over recent months.”
