![CNN's Phil Mattingly pressed former Vice President Mike Pence on his messaging and poll numbers during an interview Thursday morning. [Screenshot CNN]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screenshot-2023-09-28-at-9.37.45-AM-e1695908336783.png "CNN's Phil Mattingly pressed former Vice President Mike Pence on his messaging and poll numbers during an interview Thursday morning. [Screenshot CNN]")
CNN’s Phil Mattingly pressed former Vice President Mike Pence on his messaging and poll numbers during an interview Thursday morning.
Pence criticized his fellow opponents after the second GOP presidential debate, arguing former President Donald Trump and “some of his imitators” have walked away from a conservative agenda.
“[They are] walking away from American leadership in the world, talking the language of appeasement, prepared to ignore the national debt,” Pence said. “Donald Trump’s actually advocating an enormous tax increase on goods coming into our country, and of course shying away from and even — as Donald Trump in the last week — criticizing legislation to protect the unborn.”
“I want my fellow Republicans to know that if you’re looking for a consistent conservative who will lead our party and lead our country on a foundation that our party has led over the last 40 years, that I’m your man,” he continued. (RELATED: ‘Why Should Americans Trust You?’: Perino Calls Out Pence After He Tries To Skirt Around Question On Campaign Promise)
“Mr. Vice President, what about the last several months – and I bring this up because we spoke after you had, I think, a pretty significant speech about the point you were just making, how the party has to make a decision at this point,” Mattingly began. “In the weeks since then, what has made you think that your message is the one that people want? You lay out your message. It’s very detailed, and you have a lot of history and a record to back it up. None of it seems to have broken through at this point.”
“I’m honestly thinking it’s still early in the process,” Pence said. “I think I’m actually in the polls about where Rick Santorum was when he won Iowa, about where Mike Huckabee was when he won Iowa, and so, you know, we’re just going to keep our head down and keep carrying that message, because I’m absolutely convinced that the majority of Republican primary voters still believe in that that time-honored conservative agenda. They want to see America leading the world with a strong national defense, they want to see fiscal responsibility and less taxes, and they want to stand for traditional values. And when they look at my record they’ll see, of all the people on that stage, I’m the most qualified and the most consistent conservative.”
“I don’t mean to be repetitive, but why are you convinced of that?” Mattingly pressed. “What is the evidence that you are feeling, you’re seeing, you’re experiencing on a day-to-day basis that convinces you, despite – and I’m not talking about your polls or the race polls, I’m talking about subject matter polls, where people are on policy inside the primary. It just doesn’t track with that.”
Pence said he goes off “people” and not the polls.
Polls show Trump remains the top choice in the Republican field for the 2024 nomination, ahead of his rivals by at least 30 points.