LA CROSSE, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) – Vice President Mike Pence spent his Labor Day thanking workers at Dairyland Power Cooperative for their service while also touting the Trump administration's job creation efforts.

After his remarks, Spectrum News 1 Political Reporter Anthony DaBruzzi spoke with the vice president one-on-one in an exclusive interview about battleground Wisconsin, what comes next for Kenosha, and addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

It's often said, the road to the White House runs through Wisconsin and Vice President Pence certainly believes the Badger State will deliver for him and President Trump come November.

“Wisconsin saw this President's vision, and leadership, and voted for President Donald Trump in 2016,” Pence said. “We're very confident Wisconsin is going to vote for four more years for President Donald Trump in 2020 because this is a president who literally has done everything he told the people of Wisconsin that we were going to do. We rebuilt our military, we restored the arsenal of democracy, we launched the first new branch of our military in some 70 years. We revived our economy through less taxes, less regulation, more free and fair trade, more American energy, and the president kept his word about appointing conservatives to our courts at every level and stood by our most cherished liberties and values and I think all of that resonated with people of Wisconsin in 2016 and I think it's going to earn us four more years for the people of Wisconsin in 2020.”
 

Last week, President Trump toured the damage in Kenosha, speaking with business owners and thanking members of law enforcement.

Vice President Pence explained what was meant by President Trump's pledge to help people there rebuild.

“The president's visit to Kenosha was intended to show support for everyone in the community, for local law enforcement, for the National Guard,” Pence said. “The president deployed some 200 federal officials to help quell the violence that overtook Kenosha in the wake of the police shooting involving Jacob Blake. There's an investigation underway and we know that it'll be thoroughly, thoroughly reviewed. But going forward, the president made it clear that we're looking for ways to continue to support families and businesses that have been impacted during this challenging time. Look, we've seen three months of rioting and looting in many of our major cities at a time businesses, particularly small businesses, have been so deeply impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. That's why the president is calling on Congress to work with us to extend those programs that have been assisting businesses and it'll be in that framework that we look for ways particularly to help businesses that have been impacted in the wake of this violence. But we really do believe standing with law enforcement, and also standing with our African American neighbors, is what we have done today and we'll continue to do. We don't believe that you have to choose between supporting our African American community and supporting law enforcement. We have done both, we'll continue to do both, more resources and more support. But to be there for families, and there's those in Kenosha that saw their businesses burned out, and make sure they can rebuild again will continue to be a priority for our administration.”
 

As America grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) show Wisconsin could face nearly 4,600 coronavirus-related deaths by January. Vice President Pence said the federal government needs to keep doing what it has been doing for the last several months to make sure that doesn't happen.

“We grieve the loss of life here in Wisconsin,” Pence said. “There's just not a day gone by that I haven't had families that have lost loved ones on my heart, and in our prayers. And what we're going to do is what we've done all along from the very beginning: we're going to make sure that Wisconsin, particularly health care workers in Wisconsin, have the resources and the supplies, not just the testing or personal protective equipment, to get the level of care to anyone that's struggling with coronavirus that we would want a family member of ours to have. But what we're also doing is working every day to develop new therapeutics, new medicines, convalescent plasma that was recently approved is literally saving lives around the country. And we'd encourage anyone in Wisconsin, the tens of thousands that have recovered from the coronavirus fully, to consider donating blood to be a part of that solution for other American families. And throughout all of that, since early February, we've been driving toward a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine.”