Vice President Mike Pence told police officers in Philadelphia on Thursday that they’re heroes and “millions of Americans pray for you every day” during the current turmoil over racial justice.
“We love you,” Mr. Pence told the officers. “We will always ’back the blue.’ We will always have your back.”
The vice president’s visit to the city’s FOP lodge in the battleground state came as he and the president are pushing hard on a law-and-order campaign theme in a summer of civil unrest, targeting of police officers and mobs toppling monuments.
“You are literally what separates order from chaos,” Mr. Pence said. “But we live in a time when the radical Left is presenting the American people with one false choice after another.”
Referring to a movement on the left to defund police departments, Mr. Pence said some cities “are already starting to make that wrong choice.” He accused presumptive Democratic nominee Joseph R. Biden of planning to cut funding for law enforcement.
“I want you to hear this directly from me,” Mr. Pence said. “Under this president and this administration, we’re not going to defund the police — not now, not ever. People understand we can support law enforcement and support our communities.”
Earlier Thursday, two people tested positive for COVID-19 before a roundtable with Mr. Pence in Pennsylvania and were asked to leave the event, aides said.
The two people who were associated with the event at Rajant Corp. in Malvern had no symptoms, a campaign spokeswoman said. She said the discovery was part of routine testing of everyone who will be around the vice president during such events.
Mr. Pence also attended a private fundraiser in Manheim that raised more than $1 million. The vice president also is meeting with police in Philadelphia and speaking at an event to express support for law-enforcement officers.
At the roundtable, Mr. Pence said the Trump administration has cut taxes, rolled back regulation, “unleashed American energy and ended the war on coal” and fought for fair trade as evidenced by the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement.
He took several jabs at Mr. Biden, saying the Democrat visited a Pennsylvania company Thursday that benefited from the Paycheck Protection Program, pointing to it as an administration success.
Mr. Pence said if Mr. Biden were elected, he would carry out a “government takeover of health care” and raise taxes. He also said Mr. Biden helped to enact policies that made the U.S. subservient to China.
The vice president said the economic reopenings nationally from the coronavirus pandemic are succeeding, saying “the good news is that even in the midst of outbreaks that we’re seeing in Sunbelt states, we are opening up.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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