Pence vs. Tucker

Mike Pence and Tucker Carlson got into it at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, where the former Fox News Channel host pressed Pence on how he could be so focused on Ukraine getting more tanks when there are serious problems confronting American cities.

Pence pushed back, and the clear point he tried to make in following up was that he was not concerned about America’s ability to tackle domestic challenges while also leading on the world stage. “Anybody that says we can’t be the leader of the free world and solve our problems at home has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on Earth,” he said.

But that isn’t the part of his remarks that most voters will hear.

That’s because at one point in the exchange, Carlson recounted various domestic challenges and contrasted them with Pence’s support for Ukraine, and asked, “Where’s the concern for the United States in that?” and Pence’s immediate words were, “That’s not my concern.” As noted above, Pence’s overarching point was that he wasn’t concerned about America’s ability to do both — not that he had no concern for problems facing Americans. He was also pushing back against Carlson’s characterization of him as being more concerned with whether Ukraine has enough tanks.

But the shorter clip is what most people will see, and it’s just a brutal clip to have floating out there. It isn’t surprising to see those who hate Pence already making hay out of it — and I imagine we’ll be seeing it a lot in ads, especially if he ever gains traction as a candidate.

Video, and full transcript, below.