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Pence defends Trump in Leetonia, greets Miller
RELATED: Police respond to Kathy Miller's home over death threats after racism remarks
By DAVID SKOLNICK
skolnick@vindy.com
LEETONIA
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Republican Vice Presidential candidate Gov. Mike Pence made a campaign stop at Leetonia High School today.
Republican vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence said the choice for president is clear, and GOP Donald Trump is the only candidate who can get the job done.
The election is about “security, prosperity and the Supreme Court of the United States and our Constitution,” Pence said Wednesday during a 30-plus-minute speech at Leetonia High School. “First and foremost, it’s about the security of our nation.”
About 650 people were at the school’s gymnasium for his speech. Among them – and in the front row – was Kathy Miller, who resigned last Thursday as Trump’s Mahoning County campaign chairwoman and as a Republican member of the Electoral College, after an interview she gave The Guardian in which she said there wasn’t any racism until President Barack Obama – among other remarks, went viral.
Miller told The Vindicator that day that she publicly apologized for “inappropriate” remarks about black Americans and racism, but stood by her statements. Miller, a former Boardman trustee, said she apologized because it caused “problems for Mr. Trump, not for the statements. It’s just a distraction. I thought it was best to step aside.”
Miller said she went to the rally and ended up in the front row because “my son wanted to go so we went early and that is where we ended up. I thought we could sit in the bleachers [behind Pence], but that was apparently for volunteers.”
Miller had Pence sign a red “Make America Great Again” cap, the type that Trump often wears, for her son.
“Pence stopped at everyone that was standing along there,” she said.
Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras said, “The fact that Kathy Miller, whose ignorant, abhorrently racist comments were the subject of worldwide derision, [was standing] in the front row [at] a Trump campaign event provides clear evidence that Donald Trump and his campaign embrace the type of bigotry for which she was justifiably criticized. Her presence, indeed her preferential treatment, proves that Trump endorses her racist statements.”
Seth Unger, Trump’s Ohio communications director, said, “Kathy Miller is no longer affiliated with the campaign and the event in Leetonia was open to the public.”
Numerous requests by The Vindicator before, during and shortly after the event for a brief interview with Pence were rejected by the campaign.
“From the start of the campaign, Donald Trump has fueled divisive comments, like the ones we heard from Kathy Miller,” said Harrell Kirstein, Ohio campaign communications director for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “Elevating dangerous elements in our society is at the heart of his campaign.”
Trump has a slight lead in polls – well within the margin of error – in Ohio over Clinton.
During his speech, Pence repeated Trump’s latest criticism of Clinton to “follow the money” from her speaking fees and the contributions that went to the Clinton Foundation when she was secretary of state, and access she gave to donors while in that office.
“It looks like the kind of pay-to-play politics that the American people are sick and tired of,” he said.
To elect Clinton is to “go downhill,” Pence said. “Or, we’ll stop, plant our feet, turn around and march up the hill” with Trump.
Pence said Trump, if elected president, would stand by our allies, stand up to our enemies, end the “war on coal,” repeal Obamacare, restore law and order, uphold the Constitution, renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, and stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade proposal.
“Other than a whole lot of zeros, Donald Trump and I have a lot in common,” Pence said to laughs comparing their incomes.
He added: “The ‘American Dream’ isn’t a bumper sticker,” and Trump “will fight every day to revive” that ‘Dream.”
Bringing up Monday’s first preasidential debate between Trump and Clinton, Pence said the Republican “took command of the stage.”
Trump is “a fighter” and “a winner.”
This was Pence’s third campaign stop in the Mahoning Valley since he was named Trump’s running mate July 16, and his first without the presidential nominee.
Pence joined Trump at an invitation-only event July 15 at Youngstown State University and at the Canfield Fair Sept. 5. Pence made brief remarks at YSU and didn’t address the crowd at the fair.
He spoke for more than 30 minutes Wednesday. It was hiss first public appearance since Monday’s debate. He will debate Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Tuesday at Longwood University in Farmville, Va. It is the only debate between them.
After the speech, Columbiana County Republican Party Chairman Dave Johnson told The Vindicator: “Mike Pence hit a home run here. It’s not very often you get a national figure to come out to a rural county like Columbiana County, especially into a tiny, little rural community like Leetonia. If ever there was an area that was so forgotten, it’s places like this.”
Johnson said it was important for Pence to talk about the economy.
“That’s the thing that’s going to resonate, it’s the economy,” he said. “National security is a concern. Rioting in our streets, shooting police officers is a concern. Those are all additives. But when people sit at their kitchen table, they’re concerned about whether or not they can feed their families. That’s what the election should be about.”