Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence said he doesn’t believe “name calling has any place in public life,” despite serving on a ticket with a man who takes pride in his ability to insult and ridicule people.
Pence made the comments during a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt, in which the Indiana governor criticized President Barack Obama for calling Donald Trump a “homegrown demagogue” during his speech at the Democratic National Convention.
“I don’t think name calling has any place in public life, and I thought that was unfortunate that the president of the United States would use a term like that,” Pence said.
Trump seems to relish verbally abusing people he disagrees with and has called hundreds of people names in the course of his presidential campaign.
During the GOP primary, he repeatedly called former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush “low energy,” and referred to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as “little Marco.” (Trump has actually clarified that his preferred nickname is actually “Liddle Marco.”)
He has also attacked Sen. Ted Cruz, calling him “Lyin’ Ted,” as well as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton nicknaming her “Crooked Hillary.”
“You’ve got to brand people,” Trump said of his strategy.
Among the hundreds of people Trump has insulted have also been former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (“choked like a dog”), Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (“an incompetent judge”) and even Hewitt himself, whom he called “a 3rd rate ‘gotcha’ guy.”
He also mocked a New York Times reporter with a physical disability at a rally last year, called women “fat pigs” and implied that Fox News host Megyn Kelly treated him unfairly because she was menstruating.
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.
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