Thread by @asanderford

Today, I’m covering the Carter Lake, #Iowa, visit by @VP. Won’t have quite as much color on Twitter.

Reason: I’m the press pooler for print folks today, which means I work for everybody else first. I will live tweet the speech, and @Jess_Wade_OWH will have color. Follow her.

Here’s my first pool report. Won’t be much for local folks. But it’ll have to do till he gets talking.

Here’s the view of the venue. Ben Carson leads off.

Ben Carson: What was the world like before the United States. Despotic leaders trampling on rights. They have to think twice about that now. (Led off by saying we need to not forget how great America is and how quickly it became so.)

Carson: Says people who say America might be great for some, but not all. They're wrong. (He's talking about Black inventors, from traffic signals to gas masks.)

Carson: When you see a beautiful Black woman walking down the street, a Black man did not invent her. (Crowd laughs.) He's talking about Charles Drew. Thomas Jefferson's right-hand man was Black, helped him.

Carson: Racists like David Duke are talking about the Real McCoy and they don't even know who they're paying homage to.

Carson: Our goal right now is to make sure that the rising tide lifts all boats. That's what Donald Trump means when he says Make America Great Again. Look what happened in the pre-coronavirus era, the lowest unemployment for many demographics.

Carson: The wealth gap was closing (I'd have to look, but I don't know how he'd measure it to say it was.)

Next speaker is @DavidYoungIA, who is running to reclaim his old seat from @Axne4Congress in SW #Iowa.

Young: If signs are any indication, Trump-Pence are leading, Biden-Harris are in third place and garage sale is in second. (Folks chuckle.)

Young: We are the keepers for this generation, the next and the next. What they're trying to sell us on the other side of the aisle is not going to work. Their team is not going to even make it to the playing field. We're going to re-elect Trump and Pence.

Young thanks venue owners for hosting and says success isn't easy. Young: If you fail, it shouldn't be at the hands of the government. The sovereignty of the individual is what makes this country great.

Young is now talking about protesters, looters, says they complain about America, but they're not leaving. Young: We've got a great president and a great team. Mike Pence is a man of faith, of courage. He understands the sacrifice that has been made for this country.

Young: Peace through strength. We need to make sure we keep our president and VP in the White House for four more years.

Now up is @VP Mike Pence.

Pence: Hello Iowa.

Here’s a look at the crowd when he came on.

Pence: It's great to be here 33 days from another great victory here in Iowa and all across the country when we re-elect @realDonaldTrump for four more years. Says he landed on the other side of the river. (He didn't. He's in Carter Lake, the only part of Iowa on the west bank.)

Pence: Asking voters to send David Young to help lead a new GOP majority in the House. (Most independent pollsters think the Dems will hold onto the House.)

Pence: The road to victory goes straight through Iowa. President Donald Trump ... took the fight to Joe Biden (in the debate). We're going to keep fighting. The president said he held Joe Biden accountable "for 47 years of failure."

Pence: Four years ago a movement was born. Here in Iowa, you believed we could be strong again. You said yes to President Donald Trump in 2016. I just know Iowa's going to say yes again in 2020. It's because of what we've done under this president's leadership.

Pence: We inherited a military that was hollowed out. (Biden's folks disagree with this description.) Terror on the rise (Not sure which terror groups he's talking about. We're finally giving our men and women in uniform the help they need.

Pence: I have armed forces members in my family. I am proud to serve with a president who cares so deeply about their families, their mission and their values.

(This is likely a push back on the Atlantic article where Trump was quoted questioning why people would serve. Trump said he didn't say it.)

Pence is talking about problems at the VA under the previous administration. (He's talking about taking credit for the Veterans Accountability Act, which passed in 2013, under President Barack Obama.)

Pence: We rolled back red tape, helped create 7 million jobs, including 11k jobs in the Hawkeye State. Iowa saw its lowest unemployment rate in 20 years.

Pence: Wages were rising most rapidly for middle-class, blue-collar Americans, the forgotten people of America. (He's saying when Biden was vice president, the country lost 200k manufacturing jobs. I don't have a way to check this at this pace. Any help welcome.)

Pence: I come from another I state. Indiana. We're a lot like Iowa. We make things and you grow things. We have a champion in the White House who will be a champion for people who make things.

Pence: On the subject of growing things, I don't think I need to tell you he's always put family farmers and ranchers first. We virtually eliminated the death tax for family farms. Allowed for the immediate expensing of input costs. Repealed Waters of the USA rule.

Pence: The president told Iowans he would expand ethanol markets. We made E15 available year-round. Promises made, promises kept. (The Biden folks and Democrats have argued farmers and ranchers have lost more because of the president's trade war.)

Pence says he and the president need @SenJoniErnst back in the Senate. She's in a tough race with @GreenfieldIowa. Says the president needs @DonJBacon in his race with @karaforcongress.

Pence is now talking about the administration's record appointing judges. Pence: Those judges will protect the 1st Amendment and the 2nd (to bear arms).

Pence: Last Saturday, the president nominated a principled conservative woman of extraordinary intellect and ability, Amy Coney Barrett, to the Supreme Court. (second loudest applause of his speech, behind the 2nd Amendment).

Pence: I believe there will be a vote. "I hope people will see her character." After they provide advice and consent, I believe that she will be Justice Amy Coney Barrett. We've stood for the rule of law and strengthened our commitment to the Constitution.

Pence: President Trump has stood every day with the men and women who serve on the thin blue line of law enforcement and we always will. (standing O). "Those who serve in law enforcement deserve the respect of every American, every day."

Pence: Rioting and looting is not peaceful protest. Violence against law enforcement and others will not be tolerated. Those who do this will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

(Pence is now saying Biden said nothing while cities burned. Biden has condemned looting and violence multiple times.) Pence: Biden says America is systemically racist. He says there are structural problems in law enforcement. We will back the blue.

Pence: We're going to have law and order in every neighborhood in America, regardless of creed or color.

Pence: We've revived the economy, rebuilt our military, stood for law and order. In three and a half years, we've made America great again.

Pence is talking about suspension of all travel from China in talking about fighting coronavirus spread. Pence: His actions bought us time to stand up the greatest mobilization since WW2. (Many experts have said they suspect much of the virus load came into the U.S. from Europe.)

Pence is talking about the effort on testing. Pence: No American who ever required an ICU bed was every denied an ICU bed, and no American who ever needed a ventilator was ever denied a ventilator. (About 200,000 Americans have died from coronavirus.)

Pence: We're going to have tens of millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine ready for Americans. And we're going to keep opening up the American economy.

Pence: We're also opening up America's schools. We're distributing 100M tests. Making it possible for school nurses to get our kids back in school safely. Been married to a schoolteacher for 35 years, and she'a already back in the classroom.

Pence: We're coming to a time for choosing. The stakes have never been higher. In the middle of a global pandemic, Joe Biden wants to raise taxes. (Biden has described the Trump tax cuts as unbalanced and said he'd raise taxes on the wealthy, people who earn more than 400k).

Pence is talking about border security. Saying Mexico is doing more to secure its border than ever before. In four more years, we're going to fix this broken immigration system once and for all.

Pence: When it comes to trade, we're going to fix that too. Talking about the USMCA replacement for NAFTA.

Pence is talking about Biden cheering the rise of China, seeing it admitted to the WTO. (I'm not sure what era this claim is from, but somebody help fact check.) Pence says Trump put China on notice that the era of unfair trade is over.

Pence: President Donald Trump is also the most pro-life president in American history.

Pence: "Men and women of Iowa, we've got to decide right here and right now that Joe Biden will never be president of the United States of America." Donald Trump is going to get re-elected. Says Nebraskans need to go to work, too.

Pence: I'm going to be in Salt Lake City next Wednesday night to take the fight to Biden-Harris agenda (the VP debate). We need you to help us. Talk to your neighbors.

Pence: Four more years means more jobs. More judges. More support for our troops. And it's going to take at least four more to drain that swamp.

Pence: With one network exception, it's been ongoing negativity. This president has turned his face against the wind. He's never stopped keeping the promises he's made to Iowa and Nebraska. "Now it's your turn to fight for him."

Pence asks for people's prayers, cites scripture.

Pence: I leave here with renewed confidence. You've been an encouragement to me. We're going to make Iowa and Nebraska more prosperous than before.

Pence is talking about the need for voters to send the president GOP help in Congress. He's done. I gotta go back to pool.

@threadreaderapp Please unroll

Here’s the second and hopefully final WH pool report I’ve filed. Now I get to start work on our story with @Jess_Wade_OWH for @OWHnews.

Thanks for following along. I’ll post a link when the story is done.

Here’s a comment from @iowademocrats chair Mark Smith:

The last line is a paraphrased list of why he thinks the race is competitive.

And here’s a comment from @JoeBiden’s campaign about the visit by @VP to #Iowa.

Here’s the @OWHnews story @Jess_Wade_OWH and I wrote from today’s visit to Carter Lake, #Iowa, by @VP Mike Pence. (Updated.)

omaha.com/news/state-and…

Oh and I can finally share these.

I see you working @annaereed.