Of course this is a major hypothetical since Republican presidential candidate Mike Pence is currently at 4.8 percent in RealClearPolitics’ average of national polling, trailing not only his former boss, Donald Trump, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. But it still served as an interesting moment during Wednesday night’s NewsNation town hall event with the former vice president—one even Pence acknowledged was a “very clever question.”
It goes back to 2017—technically long before that, but it only became a big topic in the news six years ago—when the media was just flabbergasted by unearthed comments from 2002 of Pence saying he would not dine alone with a woman who is not his wife.
Why are we still talking about this? Well, after the former VP said during the town hall that he’d consider having a woman as his running mate, host Lelan Vittert wondered how that would work given his pledge.
“That’s a very clever question, it really is,” Pence replied. “Let me say, it’s a promise my wife and I made to one another.”
Pence didn’t quite answer directly, but he did say he would continue to put family first.
There’s “no greater blessing in my life other than my faith in Jesus Christ, than the marriage that I have with this incredible woman and the blessings of our family,” he said. “I’ll always put them first, whatever it means and whatever criticism comes.”
.@Mike_Pence explains how he would handle having a female vice president, given past remarks that he wouldn't dine alone with a woman who wasn't his wife.
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) September 14, 2023
Watch live: https://t.co/WJ5WSCVC41 #PenceTownHall pic.twitter.com/fsXIGuY3zT
Pence also pointed out the issue was eventually dropped after a Morning Consult survey conducted for The New York Times found most women agreed that it's inappropriate to have dinner alone with a man who is not their spouse, and 45 percent of men said the same about dining alone with a woman they are not married to.