Mike Pence: I Don’t Think Trump Has Changed the Republican Party

BOLDUAN: “You have talked about the way you wrote it, an existential identity crisis now grips the American right. And I saw that and I was thinking of our conversation, I was wondering, when President Trump leaves office, when the Trump era, if you will, ends, do you think that populism, that MAGA element that calls — accuses you a conservative of being a RINO, do you think that ends as well?”
Pence: “Well, I think President Trump, as president should, has changed aspects of the agenda of the Republican Party, but I don’t think he’s changed the Republican Party. You know, I’ve been traveling around this country over the last four years, speaking with everyday Americans and on everything from book tours to my own campaign for president. And what I’ve heard again and again is the deep commitment that Republican voters have to a strong national defense, American leadership in the world, fiscal responsibility, pro-growth policies, the right to life and traditional values. There is a populist move within the party that says we should marginalize the right to life, that we should embrace big government programs, that we should pull back from our commitments in the world. But I think that’s a minority voice. And as I said in the last segment, seeing the president reaffirm that commitment to American leadership on the world stage, seeing him sign last week a bill that extended all the Trump-Pence tax cuts, when some of the populist voices were literally talking about raising the top marginal rate, which would have been the largest tax increase in American history.”