The dark money nonprofit founded by former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday urged Republicans in the U.S. Senate to vote against confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who President-elect Donald Trump nominated to become secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, after the president-elect listed his former subordinate in a list of Republicans suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
In a letter initially obtained by The Daily Wire on Tuesday, Pence’s nonprofit Advancing American Freedom, which does not need to disclose its donors as a 501 (c) (4) organization, said Republicans should vote against Kennedy’s confirmation due to the former Democrat’s past support for abortion.
Pence’s group wrote in a letter, “While RFK Jr. has made certain overtures to pro-life leaders that he would be mindful of their concerns at HHS, there is little reason for confidence at this time.”
The letter was published shortly before Trump blasted Republicans, including his former vice president, in a post to Truth Social on Wednesday.
“As of today, the incoming Trump Administration has hired over 1,000 people for The United States Government,” wrote Trump. “In order to save time, money, and effort, it would be helpful if you would not send, or recommend to us, people who worked with, or are endorsed by, Americans for No Prosperity (headed by Charles Koch), ‘Dumb as a Rock’ John Bolton, ‘Birdbrain’ Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, disloyal Warmongers Dick Cheney, and his Psycho daughter, Liz, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, General(?) Mark Milley, James Mattis, Mark Yesper, or any of the other people suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, more commonly known as TDS.”
Pence briefly launched a presidential primary in 2024, competing against Trump and other Republicans, but quickly folded his operation in October 2023, after only months on the campaign trail.
During that time, Pence was grilled by independent media personality Tucker Carlson, who questioned the former vice president on his views about the Trump supporters who were arrested during the civil unrest on January 6 during a Republican event in Iowa.
“As to that day, all I know for sure is, having lived through it at the Capitol, is that it was a tragic day,” Pence told Carlson. “I’ve never used the word ‘insurrection,’ Tucker, over the last two years. It was a riot that took place at the Capitol that day,” said Pence, before blaming Trump for the events.
Pence struggled to reach voters during the 2024 elections, with polling aggregate FiveThirtyEight finding the number of Americans who held a negative view of the former vice president increased over the duration of his campaign.
After the 2020 elections, the former vice president infamously declined to reject Electoral College votes from states where Trump and his allies raised concerns about integrity of the vote on January 6, despite promising two days earlier that Trump voters would “have our day in Congress” to “hear the evidence.”
John Eastman, the attorney who has faced disbarment proceedings over his legal advice to the Trump campaign during its contest of the 2020 election results, testified in 2023 that while he advised Pence it would be “politically foolish” to reject the votes outright prior to January 6, he also told the vice president that Pence could announce a brief delay to examine voter fraud claims.
While Pence’s nonprofit criticizes Trump’s nominee for HHS, the former vice president was preparing to travel to Taiwan, where he urged the Trump administration to continue national support for Taiwan.
Back on the campaign trail in 2024, he similarly criticized Trump over the president-elect’s stance on foreign aid to Ukraine, with the ex-vice president saying that failing to support the corrupt, Eastern European country would put American soldiers at risk.
“I have to tell you, as the son of a combat veteran, as the father of a United States Marine, I have no doubt that if [Russian President] Vladimir Putin overruns Ukraine, it’s not going to be too long before he crosses the border where we have to send our American men and women to fight,” Pence said in 2023. “I think we are right to support them and see it through.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Mike Pence” by Gage Skidmore CC2.0 and “Robert F Kennedy Jr” is by Robert F. Kennedy. Jr.
