<\/p>\n
This election season, the American people are facing not a choice between parties or candidates, but between \u201ctwo futures,\u201d Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence told a throng of hundreds Wednesday at the La Plata County Fairgrounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump will rebuild our military, restore our arsenal of democracy and hunt down and destroy ISIS,\u201d the Indiana governor told a mixed audience of locals and visitors.<\/p>\n
The presidential nominee, Pence said, \u201cliterally embodies\u201d American values as \u201ca rugged individualist, someone who is optimistic, independent and willing to fight every day for what he believes in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Often reaping cheers and chants, Pence\u2019s 30-minute speech focused on national security, immigration, American values and bringing jobs back to American people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say \u2018this economy is the best we can do,\u2019\u201d Pence said of President Barack Obama\u2019s administration. \u201cIt\u2019s not. That\u2019s the best they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pence said the Trump administration would \u201cget rid of death taxes once and for all,\u201d and, as Pence did as Indiana\u2019s governor, instate a moratorium on any new measures that would place red tape on businesses, and repeal Obama\u2019s executive orders.<\/p>\n
He riled cheers from the crowd when he promised, under Trump\u2019s leadership, conservative Supreme Court justices, an end to Obama\u2019s health care plan and an end to the \u201cwar on coal\u201d in lieu of an \u201call-of-the-above\u201d policy on natural resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Donald Trump is negotiator-in-chief, we\u2019re going to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, get out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and negotiate trade deals that put American jobs in the American economy first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pence also took shots at Democratic challenger Sen. Hillary Clinton, who he said lost the second debate to Trump \u201chands down,\u201d and will do so again at Wednesday night\u2019s third and final presidential debate before the election.<\/p>\n
He condemned her proposals for $1 trillion in tax increases and a \u201cwar on American energy\u201d that is stunting the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like it\u2019s a fair fight,\u201d Pence said. \u201cThe national media does half of Hillary Clinton\u2019s work for her. But Donald Trump is still winning hearts and minds every day. The American people are talking while the mainstream media ignores an avalanche of scandals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crowd interjected chants of \u201clock her up\u201d as Pence maligned Clinton for her email controversy, her role in Benghazi and her foreign and trade policies.<\/p>\n
Under the Obama administration, America\u2019s \u201callies are less secure and enemies more emboldened,\u201d Pence said, and Clinton\u2019s tenure would mean more of the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cHistory teaches us that weakness arouses evil,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know a weak and feckless foreign policy has emboldened our competitors and adversaries. Hillary Clinton has been at the very center of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pence also touted security on the home front, noting that the Fraternal Order of Police, a 330,000-member law enforcement union, has endorsed the Republican presidential nominee.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems more than ever when tragedy happens in the wake of law enforcement action, too many in the media and too many in politics are willing to use a broad brush to demean those who put their lives on the line every day,\u201d Pence said. \u201cTrump will support law enforcement at every level and provide the resources they need to protect our families and go home safe to theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump-Pence supporters young and old at Wednesday\u2019s rally were impressed with the vice-presidential candidate\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike Pence has a politician\u2019s sense, Trump doesn\u2019t,\u201d said Durango native Sanlyn Maslak, 20. \u201cHe (Pence) knows what he\u2019s doing. Trump has run a business. The two together is a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maslak said as a woman, she takes no offense at Trump\u2019s history of derogatory remarks about women, including remarks he made in a tape that surfaced this month in which Trump says his celebrity enables him to sexually assault women.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard women and men say way worse,\u201d Maslak said. \u201cI\u2019ve said things I shouldn\u2019t have said. We all have.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more about the issues than the individual,\u201d added Perry Hensley, who made a trip from Cortez to attend the event. Hensley said he supports the Trump and Pence because the two represent small government and Second Amendment rights.<\/p>\n
As the election looms over an extraordinary tight race, Pence exited with a call to action for voters in Durango and throughout Colorado to elect Trump president:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you do that, we\u2019ll make America great again.\u201d<\/p>\n