Vice President Pence, in an exclusive "Fox & Friends" interview Thursday, said Joe Biden “caved to liberal activists” when the former vice president backtracked after calling Pence a “decent guy.”
Pence was asked about Biden’s comments, and then his apparent backtrack, after liberal and far-left Democrats shamed him for defending Pence’s character. He also weighed in on Biden potentially entering the 2020 presidential race.
“Well look, they’ve got an awfully big field,” Pence told “Fox & Friends.” “On the other side, the reality that you see — on the Democrat side, is it’s largely being driven by the most extreme liberal elements in their party, and the way Joe Biden caved in to liberal activists after making a kind comment for me is evidence of the pressure that all of their candidates are going to face.”
Biden’s comment came last month, when he defended Pence for praising President Trump during the Munich Security Conference. Pence was met with stone-cold silence.
“The fact of the matter is, it was followed on by a guy who’s a decent guy, our vice president, who stood before this group of allies and leaders and said, ‘I’m here on behalf of President Trump,’ and there was dead silence. Dead silence,” Biden said during a speech in Nebraska.
But Biden was hit with intense criticism by liberals like former New York City gubernatorial candidate and “Sex and the City” actress Cynthia Nixon, who blasted Biden for calling “America’s most anti-LGBT elected leader ‘a decent guy.'”
“Please consider how this falls on the ears of our community,” Nixon tweeted.
Biden took a step back and said: “You’re right, Cynthia. I was making a point in a foreign policy context, that under normal circumstances a Vice President wouldn’t be given a silent reaction on a world stage. But there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the Vice President.”
Meanwhile, during the interview, Pence explained that Democrats are “prepared to run on open borders, socialism, abortion on demand infanticide, 'Medicare-or-all,' and The Green New Deal,” giving an optimistic forecast for Republicans come the next election cycle.
“And—I like our chances in 2020,” Pence said.
At this point, there are more than a dozen Democrats who have announced they will run for president, with another dozen rumored or considering a White House bid.
Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., are among the already-crowded field.
Meanwhile, Biden hinted at a 2020 announcement “in a few weeks” on Tuesday during a speech at the annual convention of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) union.
“I appreciate the energy you showed when I got up here,” Biden said. “Save it a little longer. I may need it in a few weeks.”
Biden was met with applause and a standing ovation from the audience, but joked: “Be careful what you wish for. Be careful what you wish for.”
Biden, who represented Delaware in the Senate for nearly four decades before joining the Obama administration as vice president, has been moving closer and closer in recent weeks to launching, what could be, his third White House bid.
Sources familiar with his planning told Fox News last week that top advisers to the former vice president are getting their ducks in a row, figuring out a campaign structure and reaching out to veteran Democratic operatives who would be involved. Those sources suggested a campaign launch come April.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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