Mike Pence says ‘you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America’

Vice President Mike Pence issued a stark warning about Joe Biden in his Republican convention speech Wednesday, saying the country ‘won’t be safe’ in Biden’s America. 

It was one of many rhetorical bombs Pence lobbed as Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent at an outdoor speech at Ft. McHenry in Baltimore, where crowd members seated in spaced folding chairs called out for ‘four more years!’ 

Pence hailed Trump in a prime time speech as someone who ‘does things his own way’ as he accepted the Republican nomination for president where he wove together stories of patriotism with scathing attacks on Biden and Democrats.

Pence alternately praised Trump for his leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, and blasted the Democratic nominee for stressing a season of ‘darkness’ at his party’s convention last week. 

‘Joe Biden would double down on the very policies that are leading to violence in America’s cities. The hard truth is you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,’ Pence warned, after calling for ‘law and order’ on the streets.

‘And under President Trump, we will always stand with those who stand on the thin blue line and we’re not going to defund the police, not now not ever.

Pence, who heads the president’s coronavirus task force amid the pandemic that has seen more than 5 million Americans die of COVID-19, acknowledged those killed or harmed by the virus.

‘We’re finding our way forward again,’ Pence said. ‘In this country we mourn with those who mourn and we grieve with those who grieve,’ he continued, eschewing the president’s favored term: ‘China virus.’ 

Pence called it a ‘time of testing’ for the nation. 

‘In the midst of this global pandemic, just as our nation had begun to recover, we’ve seen violence and chaos in the streets of our major cities,’ he said. 

 ‘President Trump and I will always support the right of Americans to peaceful protest. But rioting and looting is not peaceful protest. Tearing down statues is not free speech,’ he said.

 ‘But rioting and looting is not peaceful protest,’ Pence said. 

Pence spoke to Trump’s strength and character, while acknowledging Trump’s unpredictability, after Democratic speakers called him unfit for office. 

‘He does things in his own way, on his own terms. Not much gets passed him,’ Pence said. ‘And when he has an opinion, he’s liable to share it. He’s certainly kept things interesting. But more importantly President Donald Trump has kept his word to the American people. 

He blasted Biden for the tone of the Democratic convention, which he characterized as bleak. 

‘Joe Biden said that we were living though a season of darkness,’ Pence said.

‘But as President Trump, said where Joe Biden sees American darkness we see American greatness.’

The former two-term Indiana governor and six-term congressman also called Biden, who spent four decades in the Senate, a ‘career politician.’ 

In outdoor remarks in Baltimore – a city Trump called ‘a disgusting rat and rodent infested mess’ during a spat with the late Rep. Elijah Cummings last year – Pence spoke to a crowd that included Meal of Honor winners, Purple Heart recipients, and a Gold Star mother, as well as the widow of a fallen police officer.

‘In these challenging times our country needs a president who believes in America,’ Pence said. ‘America needs four more years of president Donald Trump in the White House.’

Pence told the crowd as he accepted his nomination: ‘I humbly accept your nomination to run and serve as vice president of the United States.’

Backed by flags at the fort where Francis Scott Key penned the poem that became the National Anthem, Pence repeatedly talked up patriotism and national heritage, hours after shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. 

“Let me be clear: the violence must stop – whether in Minneapolis, Portland or Kenosha. Too many heroes have died defending our freedom to see Americans strike each other down. We will have law and order on the streets of this country for every American of every race and creed and color.”   

Speaking on yet another night of a convention that featured images of monuments and statues in Washington D.C., Pence said those who topple them would be prosecuted to the ‘fullest extent.’ 

‘If you want a president who falls silent when our heritage is demeaned or insulted, he’s not your man,’ he said. 

He also blasted Biden for saying at the Democratic convention that no miracle is coming – part of the Democratic convention’s repeatedly attacks on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus.  

‘Last week Joe Biden said that no miracle is coming. Well what Joe doesn’t seem to understand is that America is a nation of miracles,’ said Pence, who Trump picked in part due to his support among evangelical voters.

‘And I’m proud to report that we are on track to have the world’s first safe, effective coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year,’ he said.

When he concluded his remarks, Pence said: ‘And with President Donald Trump in the White House for four more years and with God’s help, we will make America great again again.’

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump flew to the event to join Pence on stage and chat with supporters, keeping a few feet away and avoiding the handshakes and hugs of conventions past due to the coronavirus ravaging the nation.

Then country singer Trace Adkins sang ‘The Star Spangled Banner,’ whose lyrics recount the British bombardment and waving flag at the fort during the War of 1812.