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Former Vice President Mike Pence voiced support for Harvard researchers caught up in the White House’s antisemitism investigations at a Harvard forum on Tuesday, but he applauded President Donald Trump for attempting to protect Jewish students.
Pence’s defense of higher education puts him squarely at odds with Trump, who has spent months attacking Harvard as a liberal bastion of the elite. Trump told reporters earlier on Tuesday that his administration had reached a deal with Harvard that included a $500 million payment.
Asked to comment on the talks, Pence said he appreciated Trump’s efforts to call on Harvard to address antisemitism, adding that he was “hopeful that issues have been resolved.”
“My hope is that there can be substantive and principled agreement reached so that we can move forward with the kind of support that will continue to underwrite the vital work of research universities around the world,” Pence said.
In the hourlong conversation moderated by Harvard Kennedy School professor Archon Fung, Pence drew a stark contrast between himself and his former boss, making the case for a return to civility and Reagan-era Republican politics.
“I just think in these divided times, it’s maybe more obvious to more Americans that we all have to start listening to each other a little bit better,” Pence said at the start of the talk. “I hope my presence here today and the time that I’ve spent on campuses over the last four years is emblematic of that.”
There is an audience for limited government conservatism, Pence argued on Tuesday, claiming that the Republican party under Trump still contained an appetite for “common sense” and “traditional conservative views.”
“They changed the agenda of the Republican Party,” Pence said of the current White House. “I don’t think they’ve changed the Republican Party.”
Among Trump’s policies, Pence was most critical of the current president’s retreat from the global stage. He said Trump’s antagonistic tariff policies had hurt U.S. farmers, arguing America should not retreat into isolationism.
“If America is not leading the free world, the free world’s not being led,” Pence said. “There is no B team. There’s no backup country that steps into that gap. It’s only us.”
Pence was especially adamant that the U.S. should continue to provide military aid to Ukraine, though he admitted that Trump had recently shown more support for the beleaguered country.
The Republican party remains divided over whether to fund Ukraine or pull the United States out of the conflict. Trump has repeatedly flipflopped on the issue, but recently has expressed a desire to help Ukraine regain all of its territory occupied by Russia.
“I continue to maintain — whatever the diverse views in our own party — that America must continue to provide Ukraine with the resources they need to defeat and repel the Russian invasion,” Pence said, to applause from the audience.
In an off-the-record study group with a group of 25 students before the public forum, Pence was even more candid about the first Trump administration. He told students that he was shocked by the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and could not have imagined Trump would incite such violence, according to two people in attendance.
But Pence also told the group that he thought Trump would respect the rule of law in his second term and would, for instance, abide by the Supreme Court if it struck down his tariff policy, the two attendees said.
A spokesperson for the former vice president did not respond to a request for comment on the study group discussion.
At the forum, Pence also addressed the rise in political violence after several high profile assassinations over the summer.
He called attention to the murder of Charlie Kirk last month, but also condemned the June assassination of Minnesota Democrat Melissa A. Hortman and the attack on Pennsylvania Governor Josh D. Shapiro’s residence this spring.
Pence said Kirk offered a model for the type of dialogue that should be fostered on college campuses.
“He was a fine young man — literally died trying to add to an open debate in the country,” Pence said. “I believe that must be his legacy — that we continue to look for forums just like the Harvard Kennedy School’s doing today.”
—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at elise.spenner@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @EliseSpenner.
