Transcript: Former Vice President Mike Pence on «Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,» May 31, 2026

The following is the transcript of the interview with former Vice President Mike Pence that aired on «Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan» on May 31, 2026.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation. We are joined now by former Vice President Mike Pence, who has a new book, What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience. Good morning to you, Mr. Vice President.

MIKE PENCE: Good morning, Margaret. Good to see you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You clearly think your party needs some reminders here, and you write that Americans are confused about what it means to be a conservative. You say for many right-wing populists, grievance dictates policy. Who or what are you thinking about there?

MIKE PENCE:  Well, I think, look, from all of my adult life, the Republican Party has been defined by a commitment to a conservative agenda to America as leader of the free world, to limited government, free market, economics, and traditional moral values, especially the right to life. And I’m proud to say that from the Reagan administration to the first Trump administration, we governed on that agenda, but I wrote «What Conservatives Believe,» because just in the last four or five years, there’s been a rise of what I call the populist right that focuses more on what we’re against than what we’re for, focuses more on grievance than a positive conservative agenda. I mean the conservative movement has always been battling politically with the progressive left, but now there’s a new threat from the populist right that would embrace policies of isolationism abroad, that would embrace big government and protectionism at home, marginalize the right to life, and as we go into this fall’s elections and go into 2028 I thought it was important that we take a moment as a party and as a movement to remind ourselves what we believe. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: But some of what you are describing isn’t just on the fringes or within the party, it’s the President of the United States who’s leader of that party, and you write he has not always governed as a conservative, I understand that the president’s overall approval rating is low. It is. But he still seems to have this vice grip on the neck of the Republican party right now. So, how can you revive a portion of it that he is in opposition to? I mean, right to life was one of them, as you just detailed. You split with him very publicly on that. You think he betrayed it. You think he betrayed on, for example, spending and the way he’s dealing with some of the free market issues.

MIKE PENCE: Well, look, I think the second Trump administration has got a lot right. They got the border secured after the worst border crisis in American history. They extended those Trump-Pence tax cuts that we passed in their entirety. They’ve stood without apology for our cherished ally, Israel, and took the fight directly to Iran. But on other instances, you’ve seen the impact and the embrace by the President and people around him of the politics of the populist right, the price controls on credit cards and pharmaceuticals, nationalization of American businesses, of course, broad-based tariffs on friend and foe alike, add to that marginalizing the right to life, doing nothing about the broad distribution of the abortion pill by mail that Joe Biden’s administration made possible, and then the stops and starts on Ukraine, while they’ve been strong on Israel, strong with Iran. The stops and starts reflect more the politics of the progressive left and appeasement than that time-honored conservative agenda that’s defined our party at home and abroad.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Why isn’t the party standing up to him then?

MIKE PENCE: Well, look, I give the president all kinds of credit (CROSSTALK) 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’ve got majorities in the house and the Senate. They’re been pretty silent.

MIKE PENCE: He has earned great loyalty among Republican primary voters. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Primary voters. 

MIKE PENCE: We saw that in Texas, we saw that in Louisiana, we saw that in Indiana in our recent state senate primaries, and I think it’s because look, the progressive left has been essentially in the saddle for about 100 years in this country. Ronald Reagan began the battle back. I think Republican voters truly appreciate the way that President Trump has fought back against the radical left and continues to, but I want our voters to know that there’s, there is this new push from the populist right, and as we look at the midterm elections, as we look at 2028 I think it’s important that we focus on on what we’re for, because not only is it a winning agenda for Republicans, Margaret, I, I believe it’s delivered freedom and prosperity for the American people.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, when you say primary voters, you know that that is not necessarily all Republican voters. Certainly, you just look at the turnouts in that Texas race to speak to that, but isn’t your party, from the president on down, with this gerrymandering push locking in the changes that will only. Feed into that more extreme part of the party. The populist—

MIKE PENCE: Well you know, it’s awfully hard for Democrats to throw stones when they live in glass houses on gerrymandering. There are states around the country that—

MARGARET BRENNAN: Sure but doesn’t gerrymandering disincentivize bipartisan.

MIKE PENCE: There are states around the country, though, where 40% of voters are Republicans, and there are no republican representatives from those states in the Congress. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you support the gerrymandering? (CROSSTALK) 

MIKE PENCE:  I’ve never been a fan of partisan gerrymandering, but look, I have great confidence in the American people and in Republican voters. I think if we hold the banner of American leadership on the world stage of limited government free market economics of traditional values in the right to life high. I think voters will rally to our cause in these midterms and in 2028 when we’re going to decide whether the progressive left with its embrace of socialism is in the lead on the national stage or whether a populist right that, that is a form of progressive politics. I mean, this is when you look at the embrace of isolationism, protectionism, nationalization of companies, and marginalizing values. It’s, it is, it’s more and more an echo of what the left has provided. I think, as President Reagan said years ago, the Republican Party ought to offer a choice, not an echo.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But isn’t the Vice President, JD Vance, an echo of all of those things? If President Trump’s not a conservative, is JD Vance one?

MIKE PENCE: Well, look, let me say, I lost count of the number of times President Trump corrected me when I said that a particular position was conservative. In fact, he said himself he’s not a conservative, he’s never really claimed to be. I’m less clear about the vice president’s views and his philosophy of government, but I’m very clear, as I wrote in my book, that there is this new tension within the Republican party that will take those pieces of the agenda, the populist right agenda that President Trump has embraced, and try and make that the new direction of the Republican party. I think that’d be bad for the Republican party. I think it’d be worse for the country that needs a vigorous, strong conservative party committed to freedom, committed to free markets, committed to traditional values.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Talking about the midterms, you also spent a lot of time writing about character, and you say it matters. Last week, Texas Republicans voted to make you know this is coming, Ken Paxton, their nominee. He’s the current AG, he was impeached by the Republican-controlled House, multiple charges of abuse there, including bribery. His wife, a sitting senator in that state, accused him of committing adultery and is divorcing him on quote «biblical grounds.» He was indicted in 2015 on securities fraud charges, though those charges were dropped, and the president chose him over a much more conservative in your description, John Cornyn. Does character represent—does the character of Ken Paxton represent your party?

MIKE PENCE: Well I think, as I write in my book, I think character, integrity to principle, are enormously important in the life of our movement, in the life of our nation. But when I look at the Texas primary, when I look at Louisiana, Kentucky, Indiana’s many state senate races, I see it more as a reflection of the grip that President Trump has on Republican primary voters who are grateful for the way that he has stood up and fought against the radical left. You look at where the Democratic Party is today. I mean, it’s amazing to see if Republicans, in part, have lost our way with the embrace of the populist right. Democrats have gone over the beam with embracing socialist candidates, socialist policies. I think Republican voters—

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you would separate yourself from Ken Paxton. He does not represent conservative values—

MIKE PENCE: Republican voters want to push back on that. They respect the president’s views. I just want to make sure people understand that as we sort through all these elections this year, that there’s a new force afoot in the Republican party, and I think we’ve got to get back to those core values and principles that have always made our country and our party strong and prosperous.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, his offense to President Trump seemed to be that vote to convict him in the second impeachment trial following the attack on the Capitol on January 6. Does it trouble you that the president is even making primary choices based on grievances having to do from January 6?

MIKE PENCE: Well, I don’t know precisely what the president’s reasons were for weighing in

MARGARET BRENNAN: He tweeted pretty explicitly. 

MIKE PENCE: The way that he did. So you know we have, we haven’t chatted in a while, but yeah, I, you know, I’ll be honest with you, that I’ll never minimize what happened on January 6, and I’ll always believe, by God’s grace, we did our duty that day to the seat of the peaceful transfer of power under the Constitution. It’s one of the reasons why this talk of a weaponization fund, Margaret, the idea of creating a fund that could compensate people who assaulted police officers and vandalized the Capitol that day is totally unacceptable. My hope is the administration will drop it, drop the idea entirely. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You think Senate Republicans will make them drop it, because it’s hard to stand up to the President. Many Republicans find, because of what you just said. Those primaries and those midterms.

MIKE PENCE:  It is, but I’ve been heartened by the number of Republicans in the Senate who have spoken out against it, look, that people that assaulted police officers on January 6 and vandalized our capital should not get one dime of taxpayer money from that fund or anywhere else. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: But I mean, even just the precedent of setting it up, should they exclude January 6 attackers? That the idea of a weaponization fund is its own thing that it bears examining, but I want to explicitly ask you about something also that happened.

MIKE PENCE: In Washington, we don’t need slush funds to settle cases. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You view it as a slush fund.

MIKE PENCE:  There was a pro-life family that was literally run over by the Biden Department of Justice, that it was just a seven figure settlement for them. The DOJ can settle these issues where people have had their rights trampled on and ought to do that. I welcome that settlement greatly.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Last week, at the request of the Department of Justice, a federal appeals court threw out the convictions of four members of far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers, that was a militia involved in January 6. Do you think that the Trump administration is deliberately whitewashing that day?

MIKE PENCE: Well, I’ve certainly seen evidence of that, particularly I was offended on the anniversary of January 6 when the White House put out a timeline that literally blamed Capitol Hill police for the riot that took place that day. Look, I’m very confident that of the judgment of history in the years ahead about our role, about all the Republicans and Democrats who returned that day after Capitol Police secured the Capitol, and we all did our duty under the Constitution, but, but there’s clearly been an effort by some to rewrite that history, but I don’t expect it’ll work. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Vice President. Thank you very much for sharing your reflections. It’s good to have you here in person too.

MIKE PENCE: Thank you, Margaret. Appreciate it.

MARGARET BRENNAN:  We’ll be right back.