After President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence went home and heard something he said warmed his heart.
Pence spoke to Politico’s Jake Sherman about what he did after the State of the Union, and how the first caller he heard encouraged him:
I went home and turned on C-SPAN because I like the call-in thing… I turned on C-SPAN and the first person that called … said ‘I’m calling from West Virginia, and I’m a lifelong Democrat. I’m a disabled veteran’ and he said ‘I just called on the Democrat line to say that I agree 100 percent with everything President Trump said tonight.’ And he said ‘I think that speech is something every American can get behind.’ And it just warmed my heart.
Pence’s may be paraphrasing a call that came into C-SPAN just after 11:00 p.m. Eastern, roughly 45 minutes after Trump finished his speech. A man identified as Danny called in to C-SPAN’s special show on reactions to the State of the Union. While Danny didn’t say he agreed with Trump 100 percent, as Pence paraphrased, he did say Trump “knocked it out of the ball park” with the speech.
“I just wanted to say that first off, I’m a disabled veteran and I am a Democrat and have always been a Democrat,” Danny said. “And I think the president knocked it out of the ball park tonight. I agree with everything he said. I don’t see how anybody that listens to his speech could not get behind the president and come together as Americans.”
Asked whether he would vote for West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who is up for reelection in 2018, Danny said he would not. “He is too liberal for me,” the caller said.
Manchin is one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate, and has frequently criticized his caucus for opposing all of the president’s proposals. Manchin also said that Democrats who refused to stand and applaud Trump was disrespectful.
“I was taught in West Virginia there’s a little bit of respect, and you should show that. And I did that then, and I did it last night,” Manchin said on MSNBC Wednesday. “I think the Democrats were wrong in not showing respect. That’s just me.”
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