Hardtalk

‘I'm very confident that someday soon we're going to have government as good as our people again’Paddy O’Connell speaks to former US Vice President Mike Pence about President Trump’s second term in office. Pence, whose political career began a quarter of a century ago, first rose to international prominence when he was selected by Donald Trump to be his running mate for the 2016 US Presidential election.When the insurgent billionaire shocked the world by defeating Hillary Clinton, Pence found himself at the centre of an administration beset by multiple controversies from the very beginning, including having to navigate impeachment proceedings against his boss.The pair, however, weren’t always aligned in their worldviews, and the relationship became increasingly frayed behind closed doors. Formal ties were severed when Pence resisted efforts by Trump to overturn his election defeat to Joe Biden in 2020.After leaving the post of Vice-President, Pence remained active in politics in the years that followed, ev