Pence Likens Donald Trump To Martin Luther King Jr.
In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence likened Donald Trump to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Raw Story reports.
What prompted the unusual comparison was Pence’s discussion with NBC News host Margaret Brennan. The two touched upon the ongoing government shutdown, and Pence made the case that President Trump attempted to reach across the aisle by offering a compromise, only to get rejected by the Democratic Party.
“What the president presented yesterday really is an effort to bring together ideas from both political parties. I think it is an act of statesmanship on the president’s part,” Pence said.
As detailed by a previous Inquisitr report, in an effort to end the government shutdown, yesterday President Donald Trump offered protections for some immigrants in exchange for funds for his border wall. Trump’s offer was not only swiftly rejected by the opposition party — it ended up being condemned and criticized by a number of civil liberties organizations.
But according to Vice President Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s actions during the ongoing government shutdown can be compared to Martin Luther King’s, who will be celebrated by the United States will celebrate on Monday.
“The hearts and minds of the American people are thinking a lot today about [this] being the weekend we remember the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” Pence said, and then went on to make a comparison between Martin Luther King and Donald Trump.
The vice president opined that, much like the famous civil rights activist, Donald Trump is changing America, reaching across the aisle, and offering the opposition party a compromise in good faith.
“You think of how he changed America, he inspired us to change through the legislative process, to become a more perfect union. That’s exactly what President Trump is calling on the Congress to do, come to the table in a spirit of good faith.”
Mike Pence’s unusual comparison is guaranteed to stir up controversy, especially given that the Trump administration is often accused of racism.
On eve of MLK Day, Pence says Trump is like Martin Luther King Jr. for ‘inspiring us’ with a border wallhttps://t.co/26QOqMaWgl
— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 20, 2019
As the Washington Post‘s Max Boot wrote in an op-ed, Trump once equated neo-Nazis with their opponents, insulted the intelligence of multiple African Americans, referred to Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas” on multiple occasions, allegedly said to want immigrants from European countries only, propped up hysteria about immigrant “caravans,” and echoed alt-right talking points, such as the one that white farmers in South Africa are being abused and having their land taken away.
Vice President Mike Pence, although spotlight-shy, has managed to entangle himself in a few scandals of his own. Most recently, Pence’s wife Karen was criticized for returning to teach at a school that has a policy of refusing to employ homosexual teachers or enroll children with homosexual parents, per reporting by the Inquisitr.
The vice president told the press that he finds the criticism — which he considers to be aimed at religious education — “deeply offensive.”
