Pence to skip 'Faith & Freedom' conference where he was booed and called a 'traitor' last year
According to a report from the Washington Post, former Vice President Mike Pence's political future could be on the line on Thursday as the House Select Committee investigating the Jan 6th Capitol riot hears testimony on his efforts to keep Donald Trump from stealing the 2020 presidential election without Pence appearing to give testimony.
Adding to that, the annual Faith & Freedom conference is convening in Nashville where a wide array of Republicans, some also looking to run for president in 2024, will be speaking -- but the very publicly devout Pence will not be in attendance after he was booed and accused of being a "traitor" last year as he spoke.
As the WaPo report states, "Pence’s decision to skip both highlights his challenge ashe positions himself to take on Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024. Advisers say the former vice president stands by his actions on Jan. 6 but doesn’t want to be known for attacking Trumplike Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.), who lost his primary on Tuesday after voting to impeach Trump, or Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who is leading the Jan. 6 committee’s most aggressive broadsides against the former president."
While it is not surprising that Pence won't appear before the House Select Committee on national TV, his skipping the Nashville meet-up is notable because it is a traditional forum for lawmakers seeking to boost their street cred with Christian activists.
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Instead of speaking at the conference that will be headlined by his former boss, Donald Trump, Pence will head to Ohio, the Post is reporting.
"Pence will spend Thursday in Ohio, fundraising with Gov. Mike DeWine and Rep. Steve Chabot, and joining DeWine for a roundtable with an oil and gas industry group," the report states before adding that the heckling of the former vice president last year is not the reason he is skipping the three-day Christian conference.
"Though Pence was invited to speak at Reed’s program in Nashville, according to multiple people involved,he wasn’t advertised as an invited speaker on the conference’s webpage," the Post is reporting, adding that potential 2024 GOP presidential nominees Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rick Scott (R-FL), Tim Scott (R-SC), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley will be speaking.
Additional speakers include former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, and Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Louis Gohmert (R-TX) and Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) who is facing scrutiny for conducting a tour in the Capitol building on the day before the insurrection where members of the group wearing MAGA hats took pictures.
You can see video of Pence being heckled in 2021 below:
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