The day after the RNC, as Trump rehashed his conspiracy theory that Rafael Cruz was an associate of Lee Harvey Oswald, Pence stood to Trump's left as his running mate said:
“Ted never denied it was his father."
At same 2016 presser, Trump openly chuckled:
"The party has come together...you got to understand I ran as an outsider. I didn't want anybody. Now I have guys like Mike Pence. This isn't supposed to happen. If I don't win, I'm going to blame Mike, right?"
Trump made waves in 2016 when he said Putin is a better leader than President Obama.
Pence played along.
"I think it's inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in his country," Pence said.
In 2016, Trump railed against Pence's fellow Midwestern governor, Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Pence said nothing.
Pence in 2016 sidestepped Trump’s openness during the campaign to changing the Geneva Convention to allow for the use of torture tactics.
In 2016 when Trump lashed out at Pence's friend Paul Ryan, Pence defended Trump who “doesn’t go tiptoeing around those thousands of rules of political correctness."
In 2016, Pence defended Trump's penchant for name calling & insults, often referring to Trump's New York roots & difference in "style."
He once said Trump made comment in “the heat of the moment.”
When @SykesCharlie asked Pence in August 2016 about Trump calling Sykes "dopey," Pence didn't call out Trump but responded: "Well, Charlie, I’ve been a fan of yours for many, many years. I appreciate your common sense, conservative voice across the airwaves.”
When Pence was asked by @SykesCharlie if Trump should apologize to the Gold Star parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, Pence responded: "I think he’s made it clear that Captain Khan is an American hero."
Pence continued on w/ Trump following the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women.
@KellyO asked Pence after: “You’ve often called him a good man. Do you still feel that way?”
Pence: “I couldn’t be more honored to stand with Donald Trump."
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Combined, they're below that roughly 75% threshold that we calculated would be roughly needed by Trump among the remaining non-Maricopa ballots if, in fact, those remaining Maricopa ballots come in at about 53% for Trump.
And look to @Garrett_Archer for breakdown of how E-Day voters voted -- Trump won those voters statewide & in, specifically, Maricopa County, by more than 60%.
That said, plenty of reason to believe higher rate of Dems turned in late earlies in final days.
Looking like GOP may be able to hit their R+3 statewide mark by night's end.
That is what most pollsters (including NYT's Friday poll) were using as marker.
In 2016? It was R+6.7 statewide.
From data so far, GOP is near R+2 statewide. *But: GOP in-person voters are outpacing Dem in-person voters in Maricopa by about 2.5-to-1 margin. Their ballot advantage expected to increase more w/ rural in-person voters & early ballots dropped off today.
Hey from Arizona! Where things are going smoothly!
A big reason:
Maricopa County (60% of AZ electorate) has 75% more ballots returned at this point than four years ago & processing is going well.
Watch this to see what the initial system once USPS drops off your ballot:
Here’s the room where officials are verifying the signature on every mail-in ballot envelope. TWO officials check each signature against one’s signature recorded in the voter registration database or other files (like DMV) if necessary. If not verified, then county calls voter—
Here is where one person picked by AZGOP & one person picked by AZDems manually pull out every ballot out of envelope. They work together to stack the ballots. These envelopes are saved until after the certification (& challenge period) of all ballots.
1) Border wall -- 300 miles of new wall (majority is replacement). 2) USMCA -- Yuma is America's winter lettuce capital/major ag economy 3) Military -- Marine Corps Air Station Yuma here (+10k miliitary/family members)