CLEVELAND ― In case anyone is still questioning Donald Trump’s conservative bona fides, look no further than his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.
Trump’s choice appears to signal of what kind of president he would be ― and it’s the kind who wants to work closely with Congress’ most conservative members.
Below are some of Pence’s greatest hits over the years:
Pence has been at the forefront of the GOP’s battles against Planned Parenthood, birth control access and abortion rights for years. He even threatened to shut down the federal government over Planned Parenthood funding as a congressman in 2012.
His cuts to Planned Parenthood funding in Indiana exacerbated an unprecedented HIV outbreak in a rural area where the family planning provider had been the only HIV testing center.
After he signed a bill into law to severely restrict abortion rights in the state, women flooded his phone lines to tell him about their periods.
He also embarrassed the Republican Party and the state of Indiana by signing a controversial “religious freedom” bill into law that licensed discrimination against LGBT people.
Then, after backlash, he signed a revised version ...
leading to a major drop in his approval rating.
He tried to defend the law by comparing it to an existing federal law backed by Democrats, despite the fact that the Indiana law had additional language that facilitated LGBT discrimination.
And in an interview, he refused to say whether it should be illegal under state law to discriminate against LGBT people.
After his announcement as Trump’s VP pick, Emily’s List summed the duo up:
“Together, they are a perfect storm of classic, out of touch, GOP extremism.”
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.
Before You Go
