Republican VP candidate Pence puts blame for IS on Obama, Clinton

Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence doubled down Wednesday on running mate Donald Trump’s recent controversial remarks calling President Barack Obama the “founder of ISIS.”

While not going quite as far as Trump, the Indiana governor reiterated in a Henderson speech the notion that Obama and Clinton were instrumental in laying the foundation of the terrorist group.

He spoke to about 400 people at the Henderson Convention Center. It was his first visit to Southern Nevada since becoming Trump’s vice presidential pick.

Pence, a staunch fiscal and social conservative, said Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton “literally created the vacuum in which ISIS was able to be conjured up.”

At a Florida rally on Aug 10, Trump said Obama “is the founder of ISIS. He’s the founder of ISIS, OK? He’s the founder. He founded ISIS.” He followed that up by saying Clinton “co-founded” the terrorist group. Trump reiterated that stance the next day on several news stations.

But by Friday, Trump started walking those comments back, tweeting that the comments were sarcastic.

Pence was introduced by a trio of Nevada conservatives: Assemblyman Chris Edwards of Las Vegas, state GOP Chairman Michael McDonald and 3rd Congressional District candidate Danny Tarkanian.

Other notable Southern Nevada Republicans were noticeably absent from the rally. U.S. Rep. Cresent Hardy, who is seeking re-election in the 4th District, was out knocking on doors for his campaign, his campaign manager said. Rep. Joe Heck, who is running to replace U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader who is retiring, was in Reno.

Pence spoke for about 45 minutes, spending much of the speech praising Trump as the “law and order candidate” and repeating several of Trump’s campaign promises.

Pence said the billionaire would “end the war on coal,” cut taxes for all Americans and build a wall between the United States and Mexico to “restore our borders.”

He criticized Clinton repeatedly, painting her as an extension of the Obama administration, while saying that Trump would “upend the status quo.”

Pence spoke to local television stations after the speech. Print media journalists were not allowed to attend that session.

“There are only two reasons to deny some journalists access to a candidate while allowing access to others: to avoid the reporters most likely to ask tough questions and to send a message to the remaining reporters that tough questions will put their access at risk,” Review-Journal Managing Editor Glenn Cook said. “It’s no way to run a campaign, and it’s no way to run government.”

PRE-RALLY PROTESTS

The sidewalk outside the convention center was the platform from which NextGen Climate and the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws protested Pence’s visit to Henderson.

Adriana Arevalo, communications director for NextGen Climate Nevada, said she and about 10 protesters were there to say they cannot support Trump and Pence’s “dangerous agenda.”

“We need to elect climate champions,” she said. “We need to elect people who care about clean energy and about our future.”

Abortion association staff and members chanted, “Not politicians, not the state, women must decide their fate.”

“There are few worse villains on women’s issues than Mike Pence,” said Electra Skrzydlewski, state organizing coordinator for the association.

After about 30 minutes, Trump supporter Eunise Mendez of Anaheim Hills, California, approached the protesters.

“I stopped listening to all the media hype,” Mendez said. “I’m going to listen to his words. That’s the best thing to always do. Why are we listening to everybody else tell us what Trump thinks and what he says?”

She said Trump is for the American people.

It was the third rally in Nevada for Pence this month — he also spoke in Reno and Carson City — but it proved much tamer than his Carson visit on Aug. 1.

Catherine Byrne, the Carson City mother of an Air Force serviceman, was booed when she criticized Trump’s comments that she said disrespected parents of Muslim U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Kahn, who died in combat in Iraq.

Pence asked that crowd to quiet down and said of Byrne, “That’s what freedom looks like. That’s what freedom sounds like.”

“Capt. Khan is an American hero, and we honor him and his family as we do all military families,” Pence said to the Carson City crowd.

Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Find @ColtonLochhead on Twitter. Contact Natalie Bruzda at nbruzda@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3897. Find @NatalieBruzda on Twitter.