Pence Rears His Underachieving Self on Fox News Today

By calling the MOU appeasement, Pence appeases the TDS crowd

Former Vice President Mike Pence reappeared on Fox News this week to promote his new book and offer his latest critique of the direction of the Republican Party. In doing so, he reminded viewers why many conservatives continue to view him as a politician long on lectures and short on accomplishments.

To be fair, Pence began by praising President Donald Trump for his actions against Iran.

“This president has done more to degrade the threat that the Iranian regime has posed to the United States, Israel and our allies than any president in history,” Pence said.

But the compliments did not last long.

The former vice president quickly pivoted to criticizing a proposed memorandum of understanding with Iran, arguing that it lacks sufficient safeguards and concessions from Tehran.

Pence expressed concern that the agreement fails to require the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, ballistic missile capabilities, or support for terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East.

“Bottom line, I don’t trust the Iranians,” Pence declared. “When it comes to the mullahs in Tehran, we need to verify, verify, and then trust.”

Those concerns may be shared by many Americans. Yet the interview also highlighted a recurring pattern in Pence’s political career.

Whether serving in Congress, as governor of Indiana, or as vice president, Pence often seems most comfortable explaining what others should do rather than defending what he himself accomplished.

At one point, Pence argued that the United States should return to negotiations from a position of overwhelming strength, sounding like an hawk at other times.

“We won, you lost,” Pence said he would tell Iran. “If we don’t have those commitments, I really do believe that we should unleash the armed forces of the United States and Israel.”

Strong words, certainly. But they come from a politician whose own presidential campaign never gained traction with Republican voters and whose influence within the modern Republican Party appears to diminish with each passing year.

For Hoosiers, Pence’s return to the spotlight also revives debate about his Indiana record.

Supporters credit Pence with advancing conservative causes, cutting taxes, and supporting religious liberty. Critics argue that his administration’s most memorable national moment was the backlash surrounding Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act controversy, a fight that ultimately ended with revisions many conservatives viewed as surrender to corporate and media pressure.

Likewise, his years in Congress and as vice president coincided with massive growth in federal spending, expanding national debt, and foreign policy challenges that remain unresolved today.

Perhaps the most revealing portion of the interview came when Pence discussed his new book, What Conservatives Believe. He warned that the Republican Party faces a threat not only from progressives on the left but also from populists on the right.

According to Pence, the Republican Party has been defined for decades by strong national defense, limited government, traditional values, and pro-life principles. He warned that a growing populist movement favors isolationism, larger government programs, and a departure from traditional conservative orthodoxy.

“The Democratic Party has been overrun by the progressive left,” Pence said. “But there is a new threat to the conservative movement from the populist right.”

That statement helps explain why Pence increasingly finds himself out of step with many Republican voters.

Millions of voters who embraced Donald Trump did so because they concluded that establishment conservatives had failed to deliver on many of the promises they made for decades.

To those voters, Pence represents a political class that talked endlessly about limited government while government grew larger, promised fiscal discipline while debt exploded, and championed foreign interventions that often produced uncertain results.

The irony is hard to ignore. Pence now presents himself as the defender of the Republican Party’s traditional principles. Yet many of the voters who once supported those principles are asking a simple question: if establishment conservatives were so successful, why did Republican voters become willing to upend the entire political order in the first place?

For some conservatives, Pence remains a principled constitutionalist and a man of character. For others, he represents a political era that consistently underperformed while insisting it was succeeding.

His appearance on Fox News may have helped sell books. It also served as a reminder that the debate over the future of conservatism—and Mike Pence’s place within it—is far from settled.

For many Hoosiers, the question remains whether Pence’s legacy is one of leadership and accomplishment or merely one of being in the room while others made the history, and seems to be desperately seeking relevance. He seems self appointed to teach what conservatives believe to conservatives as he is out for a walk alone.