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First Ladies And First In Line

Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a meeting of the National Space Council at the East Room of the White House on June 18, 2018.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a meeting of the National Space Council at the East Room of the White House on June 18, 2018.

The people closest to President Trump have come under more scrutiny in recent days. News outlets are reporting that First Lady Melania Trump was a key influence on President Trump’s decision to sign an executive order to walk back the administration’s previous policy of family separation.

And when it comes to people close to the president, Kate Andersen Brower is an expert. She’s written books on the office of the First Lady and the office of the Vice President.

Of Pence, she writes:

Before he was elected to Congress, Pence sought name recognition in Indiana as a radio host, marketing himself as “Rush Limbaugh on decaf.” “He could not be a more directable talent,” said Kent Sterling, who was an assistant program director for The Mike Pence Show. When Pence started out in radio, Sterling directed him to try not to be too long-winded. “He nodded when I asked him and I wondered if he got it. The next day he was spot on. He was perfect and he never deviated.” Pence’s friends from Indiana say Mike and Karen see the world as engaged in a moral conflict between those who are against Christianity and those who support it. “I’ve never questioned Mike Pence’s convictions with respect to his faith,” said Scott Pelath, who was Democratic minority leader in the Indiana House when Pence was governor. “He’s gotten exactly what he’s wanted in his life of faith. I’m worried that it’s made him even more resolute in his belief that he’s been sent on a holy mission. And that is dangerous for the country. It’s untenable.

Throughout the immigration policy debate, the vice president has supported Trump. In a meeting with members of Congress prior to the executive order on June 20, he emphasized the president’s priorities.

“But what the President reiterated again yesterday, and he has said every day from when he sought this office, is we have a crisis of illegal immigration. And as the President made clear, we don’t want families to be separated. We don’t want children taken away from parents. But right now, under the law — and we sit with these lawmakers — we only have two choices before us: Number one is, don’t prosecute people who come into our country illegally, or prosecute them and then, under court cases and the law, they have to be separated from their children.”

During the family separation crisis, all living first ladies, including Melania Trump, expressed concern about the separation policy.

We’ll talk to Brower about Melania Trump, Mike Pence, and how they and their predecessors see their roles in politics and public life.

GUESTS

Kate Andersen Brower, Journalist and author of “First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies” and a new book, “First in Line: Presidents, Vice Presidents and the Pursuit of Power”; @katebrower

For more, visit https://the1a.org.

© 2018 WAMU 88.5 – American University Radio.

Copyright 2018 WAMU 88.5

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