Gov. Mike Pence and his wife Karen wave to supporters at a rally on Monday at the Carson Nugget.
A crowd of some 400 who turned out at the Carson Nugget to hear Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick turned ugly for a few moments.
A Carson City woman asked Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s opinion of Trump’s disrespecting the Muslim family who lost a son in the Middle East.
The woman named Catherine Byrne said she has a son in the military and objected to Trump’s handling of the Kahn family’s speech at the Democratic Convention and his continuing attacks on them. The crowd reaction was loud boos and one woman demanding to know “why did you come here.”
But Pence shut the boos off saying, “Folks, that’s what freedom looks like; that’s what freedom sounds like.”
He said he has nothing but respect for the Kahn family’s lost son and his service, and respect for the family’s loss.
“We honor him and his family,” he said.
Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son, Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq by a suicide bomber on June 8, 2004. Khizr Khan criticized Trump for suggesting a freeze the entry of foreign Muslims into the U.S. and accused him of making no sacrifices for his country. The billionaire businessman challenged that assertion and also implied Ghazala Khan’s religion prevented her from speaking.
In Carson City, Pence said Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, “personifies the failed policies of Washington, D.C.”
Trump, Pence said, “gets it.”
“He’s the genuine article. He’s a doer in a game usually reserved for talkers,” said Pence. “He doesn’t tip-toe around in political correctness.”
Pence, a six-term former member of the House of Representatives and now Indiana governor, said despite the divisiveness of the GOP primary process, “now we are a united party, a united movement and we’re going to make Donald Trump the next President of the United States.”
Electing Clinton, he said, wouldn’t bring any change in Washington but that a Trump presidency would mean “huge change” from day one and one of the most important issues is the Supreme Court.
“This election will define the Supreme Court of the United States into the future,” he said. “We want to ensure the next president of the United states appointing justices is President Donald Trump.”
He also said it’s time for the U.S. to consider a balanced budget amendment and cut the fat out of the federal government, at the same time promising to protect and honor the party’s promises to seniors including protecting Social Security and Medicare.
Pence said the way to do that is to grow the economy.
And, in a nod to the ongoing legal battle in Nevada over the Educational Savings Account vouchers program, Pence told the crowd he believes parents should be able to choose where their children go to school whether it’s public, private or a parochial school.
Pence was to follow the Carson City speech with another speech Monday night in Reno.