Mike Pence was so offended when the infamous Access Hollywood tape exposed Donald Trump talking about getting away with groping women and grabbing them by the crotch because he was a ‘star’, he privately confronted Trump.
Trump had asked the then Governor Pence, a staunch Evangelical conservative, to serve as his Vice President, and the governor was seriously reconsidering staying on as his running mate.
Trump had no choice but to profusely apologize to Pence and his wife for the scandal that was made public during the final months of Trump’s presidential campaign run in 2016, author Leslie Montgomery writes in The Faith of Mike Pence.
Pence was clearly repulsed by what Trump called ‘foolish’ words from a less than perfect person and was urged by friend Kellyanne Conway to meet with the future president.
Candidate Donald Trump had to personally apologize to Mike Pence for his remarks about grabbing women by the pu**y in the now-infamous tape before Pence agreed to be his running mate
They met Melania, Donald and Barron at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club over the summer of 2016
After a long public silence, Pence stated, ‘I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them. He clearly did something that was wrong and he knows it. And he’s apologized to his wife and that’s good enough for me’, the author, Leslie Montgomery quotes the now vice-president in her book, The Faith of Mike Pence, published by Whitaker House.
But Mike and Karen Pence didn’t just accept Trump’s mea culpa for his crude remark before asking to meet with Melania and their son Barron.
Mike and his wife, Karen needed to know the Trumps as a family before making that decision to be his Vice President.
Author Leslie Montgomery quotes the now vice president in her book, The Faith of Mike Pence, published by Whitaker House
Trump’s National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, was set as the locale to spend a July weekend with Donald, Melania and Barron.
Pence first sought advice from his longtime friend and now senior counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway before jetting to New Jersey.
‘Conway urged him to talk about things other than politics’, writes the author.
In New Jersey, the two men sized each other up over the weekend, played golf and Trump beat him ‘like a drum’, Pence confessed.
The tape leak scandal had made several dozen Republican leaders uneasy and they called for Trump to withdraw from the campaign and let Pence take over the Republican ticket.
Pence, himself, was worried that any affiliation with Trump would ruin his career and thought he should stay in Indiana and run for a second term as governor.
Other key Republican advisors suggested that he should accept the offer if it came because it would make him a leading candidate for president in four years – so they thought.
He was also reminded that his re-election bid for Governor was not going to be a cakewalk because his first term had received only mixed reviews and toxic criticism of his anti LGBT legislation.
An evangelical spiritual advisory committee had formed and Trump was their last choice for president but if they picked Pence, Evangelicals believed ‘they are going to have a place at the table’ in this administration, writes the author.
Trump desperately needed the support from the Evangelicals and conservatives and Pence brought him credibility.
‘Trump needed a Mike Pence and there was no one else like him’, GOP mega-donor, Doug Deason is quoted.
‘He wouldn’t have won with Chris Christie. In no way were we under the delusion that we were hiring Saint Trump.
‘We were not looking to hire someone, a president, to come in and heal the moral ills of our country. We were hiring someone to go in and finally shake up Washington like it’s never been shaken and truly change the way business is done’.
Pence stated that they should stay on the Trump ticket because ‘the alternative of Hillary Clinton is unacceptable’.
Pence harbored big political dreams for years and once even considered running for president against Barack Obama in 2012.
But Pence also had no executive achievement, never held an executive position and had no fund-raising base.
Being Vice President was his first big opportunity to move forward with those burning political ambitions to reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Trump made the crude remarks toward women during a 2005 taping of Access Hollywood with Arianne Zucker and host Billy Bush
‘I did try and f**k her,’ Trump said in what he thought was a private conversation that was leaked just before the election in 2016
Mike and wife Karen wanted to know the Trumps as a family before agreeing to be Trump’s VP and met Melania, Donald and Barron at his New Jersey golf club
Then-vice presidential nominee Pence released this statement in regards to the Access Hollywood tape
Born in the small town of Columbus, Indiana, in June 1959, his parents committed to raising their son and his five siblings under the guidance of God and the Catholic Church.
Little Mike didn’t talk until he was three and was considered the least attractive of the four boys in the family of six children that included two younger sisters.
His brothers were all well built and good looking while Mike struggled with being a little ‘pork pie’ throughout his childhood.
‘I was just a fat little kid – the real pumpkin in the pickle patch’, Pence said.
He carried the weight through his teens and it impacted his ability to play extracurricular sports and certainly affected his self-esteem.
His parents finally decided to consult a doctor who put him on a radical diet that helped him lose a whopping 55 pounds in one summer.
His confidence soared so he ran for class vice president but lost.
The Pences were democrats and all admired President John F. Kennedy with shared family roots from the same area in Ireland as the Kennedys.
A framed photo of JFK and Pope John XXIII adorned the top of their TV set.
Mike was only four when Kennedy was assassinated but he kept photos, news articles and banners of the president in a box in his bedroom closet.
At age 17, he served as a coordinator for Bartholomew County Democratic Party while earning spending money pumping gas.
Pence once had his eye on becoming a priest or a vicar but that faith waned while he was in high school and he turned his focus on being a prankster – imitating friends, teachers, relatives – anyone – for laughs.
He also played the acoustic guitar and performed at high school functions because it was ‘chick bait’.
Pence met his future wife Karen Whitaker, during a non-denominational Christian church one Sunday, the book reveals
Actor and marijuana activist Woody Harrelson was friends with Pence while they both studied at Hanover College, a small Presbyterian school in the early 1980s, he revealed in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel
Pence attended the small Presbyterian school, Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana, that attracted Evangelical Christians as well as hardcore drug users – and movie star and marijuana activist Woody Harrelson who was studying the ministry in the early 1980s.
In high school in Columbus, Ohio, in 1977 Pence was a prankster – imitating friends, teachers, relatives for laughs (pictured in a school photo)
Woody and Pence became fast friends attending church activities together and sharing similar convictions of faith until Woody did a 180 and began questioning the Bible.
Harrelson put his faith on hold so he could live his twenties and thirties ‘in extreme hedonism’, Woody later confessed.
‘We were both very religious. I was there on a Presbyterian scholarship and he was involved with church activities.
‘I actually quite liked him. I thought he was a pretty good guy.
‘Seeing as how I’m not quite in that ballpark now, I don’t know how we’d get along, ’cause I think he’s still quite religious and just a whole different brand of religious’, Harrelson confessed to Jimmy Kimmel last year.
‘That kind of fervor that you really don’t want’.
Pence, a longtime crusader in the war on drugs before marijuana was made legal in multiple states, has fought against reducing penalties for cannabis possession.
When Ronald Reagan was campaigning for president in 1980, Pence switched parties.
‘I started to identify with that kind of common-sense conservatism of Ronald Reagan.
‘Before I knew it, I decided I was a Republican.’
He also made another big decision to abandon any goals of joining the priesthood because he liked girls too much – and he envisioned a life with a wife and children.
When he didn’t get accepted in law school at Indiana University, he took time off and worked as an admissions counselor and started a Bible study group.
Two years later, he reapplied to law school and got accepted.
This is a brochure from Mike Pence’s 1988 House race, the first of two election defeats that helped shape Pence’s future political image
After losing the congressional election as well as losing his father (pictured), Pence says he asked himself, ‘What kind of person do I want to be?’
While working as a lawyer, Mike and Karen campaigned hard and won the Republican primary election but lost the general Congressional election to the incumbent Democrat
Attending a non-denominational Christian church one Sunday, Mike met the woman he would marry, Karen Whitaker, who played guitar during the church services.
He was taken with her looks and went in hot pursuit but she brushed him off. He found out she taught art at an elementary school and made another move on her.
She had married her high school sweetheart, a medical student, but that marriage was doomed by her husband’s long hours working at the hospital.
They had the marriage conveniently annulled by the Catholic Church.
‘We were kids. We probably didn’t necessarily know what we were doing’, Karen stated.
Sharing the same beliefs in faith and family as Pence, ‘their mutual faith in God was the foundation of their relationship’, writes the author.
Now working as a lawyer at the bottom of the totem pole in a law office, Pence was frustrated and thought about politics but he had no clue as to how the Republican Party was even organized in Indianapolis.
It was a shot in the dark.
He was thinking about working on polls or knocking on doors when the county Republican chairman suggested he should run for a local congressional seat – with no prior political experience.
He campaigned hard with Karen and won the Republican primary election but lost the general Congressional election to the incumbent Democrat.
He was also exposed for illegal use of political donations to pay personal expenses.
Pence, a father-of-three, has raised his family with faith. Power of prayer and conservative policies became his daily guiding light
It was a radical turning point in Pence’s life and he now realized that he had thrown his spiritual self out of the window with his crude campaign behavior.
Add to the loss and vicious attacks by his opponent, his father had just died.
Asking himself ‘what kind of person do I want to be’, he decided to devote his life to God and emerged from his grief with prayer.
When Karen became pregnant after six years of failed attempts, a family was finally in sight – as well as Washington.
His prayers seemed to be answered now and he won the State’s 6th Congressional district in the House in 2001.
Faith, the power of prayer and conservative policies became his daily guiding light.
Pence set up a Bible study group for cabinet members and he provides Bible study printouts for Trump on a weekly basis – although it’s been widely reported that Trump doesn’t read.
‘Trust me. He wants to pray all the time. Every time we get together, there’s a prayer meeting’, Trump stated.