RIPON, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) – Using the birthplace of the Republican Party as a backdrop, Vice President Mike Pence made it clear to supporters in Ripon Friday how a Joe Biden presidency would look very different from the current administration.
Vice President Pence told the crowd of roughly 50 supporters he came to Ripon to talk about what is at stake in November—painting a stark contrast between, in his words, the dignity of every individual and growing control of the state. During much of his speech, the vice president was critical of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders teaming up to form what he believes will be a radical agenda.
“It's not so much whether America will be more conservative or more liberal or more Republican or Democrat or more red or blue,” Vice President Pence said. “It's whether America remains America.”
Touting tax cuts and job creation, the vice president's message was simple—keeping Donald Trump in office for four more years will keep America what it is today.
“I'd say the vice president has an outstanding record of success to tout, and what better place to do that than here in the birthplace of the Republican Party here in Ripon, Wisconsin,” Anna Kelly, Trump Victory Press Secretary for Wisconsin, said. “I mean we've seen 75,000 new jobs added to the state of Wisconsin as part of the president's 'Great American Comeback' in May alone, freer and fair trade deals like the USMCA, which will be great for farmers and workers in the state, so I think he has a long line of success to talk about and he'll also talk about the fact that Joe Biden really threatens to undo that progress.”
Though the coronavirus pandemic has created lots of challenges, supporters like John Slotten from Fond du Lac said electing a new president would be too risky.
Slotten is no stranger to a vice-presidential rally. He delivered the invocation at the kick-off to Vice President Pence's 'Faith in America' tour last month in Pewaukee.
“If you look at the record, the growth that they've done in this administration has been incredible until COVID hit, and now we need to take a look at that again and really we need unified voices in America coming together,” Slotten said. “We need everybody working together to put people back to work, but keep people safe.”
Just a few blocks away, in front of Ripon's American Legion, supporters of the vice president gathered to get a glimpse of the motorcade passing by.
Dale Gunville came from Green Bay because he wants one thing in November —the Republican Party in office.
“The first four years Trump's been in here the economy went up, the jobs went up, everything went up, but then the pandemic hit and it's just been like a curse for our whole country and if we can get out of this, I believe it will go right back to where it was if you don't change things,” Gunville said.
It is that kind of change Vice President Pence hopes to avoid come November.
“Joe Biden would be nothing more than an autopen president,” Vice President Pence said. “A trojan horse for a radical agenda, so radical and so all-encompassing that it would transform this country into something utterly unrecognizable.”
After his speech in Ripon, Vice President Pence toured Morning Star Farm in Onalaska and held a roundtable discussion on the benefits of the USMCA trade deal.