Pence deflects identifying as MAGA despite being 'incredibly proud' of serving with Trump

Former vice president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Mike Pence, whom The Hill noted on Thursday is the only veep "in decades to run against the president he once served," insisted to NBC News moderator Chuck Todd on Sunday's edition of Meet the Press that his right-wing credentials are a compelling reason for conservatives to support him.

Pence has blamed twice-impeached thrice-indicted ex-President Donald Trump for the attempt to overturn President Joe Biden's landslide Electoral College victory in the 2020 election and for inciting the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol, for which Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four federal felonies.

Pence has also been careful to not alienate GOP primary voters, although polling continues to show that they overwhelmingly favor Trump for the nomination despite the mounting civil and criminal cases overshadowing his campaign.

Nonetheless, with the Republican National Committee's premier debate just ten days away, Pence defended his record, even as Trump fans reignite their calls to have him assassinated. He stopped short, however, of identifying himself as a member of Trump's political movement.

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"Do you consider yourself a MAGA Republican?" Todd asked.

"I'm incredibly proud of what we did in the Trump-Pence administration for four years, and you better believe it," Pence said. "In those four years — after eight years of the slowest recovery since the Great Depression, eight years of under Barack Obama and Joe Biden that saw military cuts that hollowed out our military, eight years of liberals on our courts — under the Trump-Pence administration, with the support of MAGA Americans, we literally did 'Make America Great Again' before that pandemic struck."

Todd reiterated, "You feel like you're a MAGA Republican or not?"

Pence responded, "Look, I'm a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican in that order. I've always said that. People who know me know those are my values, those are my ideals. And I really believe that the agenda that I've always been about, that I'm looking forward to making, taking to that debate stage is the agenda that'll bring this country all the way back."

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