Mike Pence faces CNN pushback after downplaying Trump priority: 'He's excited about it!'

Mike Pence faced some pushback on CNN in his defense of President Donald Trump's policy priorities.

Trump's former vice president appeared Wednesday morning on "CNN News Central" to promote his new book, "What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience," and he justified some of the president's policies, including tariffs, that he personally did not support.

"Look, the president comes by hissupport for tariffs honestly," Pence said. "Imean, he hassupported broad-based tariffsthroughout his career. Now,during our administration, weuse tariffs as a means ofleverage, the threat of tariffs.That's how we renegotiatedNAFTA, that's how we werenegotiated a trade deal with South Korea, and we're workingon trade deals around the world before we left office. But thisadministration is different withthe 'liberation day' tariffsagainst friend and foe alike.The Supreme Court turned themback."

Pence pointed out the U.S. Trade Representative announced another round of tariffs this week, and host Kate Bolduan interjected.

"No one's making Trump do anything, right?" she said. "I mean, Donald Trump is supercharging that populism."

Pence disagreed and suggested that outside voices were nudging Trump toward right-wing populism.

"He comes by that veryhonestly, he really does," Pence said. "ButI would tell you, this new cabinet, that newvoices, I mean, the idea ofliterally having the federalgovernment take a percentageshare of Americanbusinesses would have, I think,never even been discussed in thefirst Trump administration, andit comes from the outside."

Bolduan interjected again to fact check the former vice president.

"He's so excited about it," Bolduan said. "Hejust said in an interview hewished he'd taken a biggerstake in it."

Pence chuckled and begged to differ.

"I get that, I understand it,but the point that I make in thebook is that Republicans havealways believed in limitedgovernment and free marketeconomics, in free enterprise," he said. "Those policies, big governmentpolicies that have made theirway into this administrationare at odds with thatlong-standing tradition, but here's the thing Iwould say to you, there's noquestion in my mind that thepresident remains the leader ofthe Republican Party and Republican primary voters."

The former vice president praised Trump's success in getting his favored candidates elected in GOP primaries around the country.

"Ithink that comes from the factthat Republicans are grateful that for 10 years, Donald Trumphas been willing to fight theradical left," Pence said. "He did it duringour years and through thelawfare times of the Bidenadministration and since."

Bolduan pointed out that Pence's book explicitly was intended to nudge the Republican Party back to its pre-Trump norms, and asked what part of the MAGA agenda he did not want to endure.

"I want alot of it to endure," Pence insisted. "Look, Ilove my country, I want to seethe president be successful. Butwhat I don't want to see ispeople on the populist right conflating thepresident's personal popularitywith with a new agenda that'sfar afield from the conservativeagenda, and that's where I whyI wrote 'What Conservatives Believe.'"

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