Pence emerges in NC with praise, 'forgiveness' for Trump

Pence said Trump is a "fighter" and a "winner".

Following the latest presidential debate, Pence said Monday that he believes Trump is sorry for the crude and predatory language about women captured in a 2005 video that became public last week. "And last night my running mate showed the American people what was in his heart". Given the public focus on all of the tawdriness, I imagine not many women would have had the self-control to invoke Michelle Obama's advice, "when they go low, we go high" as Hillary Clinton did Sunday night. "I believe in forgiveness", Pence said. Nearly immediately after the report was posted, Trump cancelled what was to be his appearance with Pence, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Wisconsin Sen. Pence disappeared just when Republicans had started to count on him to be the adult who will not leave Trump alone in the White House.

Pence congratulated Trump on the debate and said he never considered leaving the ticket - even as dozens of Republicans called on the nominee to step aside over the weekend.

During Wednesday's speech, Pence praised Trump, saying the GOP presidential nominee is someone who "never quits" and "literally embodies the spirit of America".

Trump and Pence trail the Democratic ticket by an average of 4.5 percentage points in national polls that also include third-party candidates, survey aggregator RealClearPolitics said.

"And it has been", Pence added. He linked Clinton to President Obama and said the foreign policy from her time as secretary of state had weakened the US position and led to more turmoil in the Middle East. The candidate, however, is Hillary Clinton and, if anything, she showed remarkable composure, and exuded dignity in the face of Trump's attempt to rattle her or to paint her with the sins of her husband.

Pence's appearance - his fourth in the state in less than two weeks - came five days after the Republican ticket was rocked by the release of a 2005 video of its presidential nominee, Donald Trump, crudely boasting of his sexual advances toward women.

That Trump stopped the run for the exit door of evangelical and "establishment" Republicans withdrawing their endorsement is yet to be seen.

Pence told the overflow crowd of almost 400, "The stakes in the election go far beyond what the media is focused on, on any given day".

"The importance of everything we have said so far may pale in the comparison of this one issue: This president might set direction of Supreme Court for the next 40 years", Pence said. The messaging was simple, and sober: better Trump than Hillary, better the lunatic who will nominate our judges and sign our tax bills than the liberal who won't, and even if you don't believe in any of that, better to support Trump and keep the House then to abandon him and witness the return of Speaker Pelosi.

One of the questions PredictIt users can bet on is whether Pence will leave the ticket before October 31.

"America has always been able to look to the strong, common sense leadership of the people of Iowa".

The vice presidential nominee did lash out at Clinton's foreign policy history.

Trump exposed the fraudulence of the Clintons' clucking concern for sexually abused women, brought Pence back into camp, turned the tables and changed the subject from the Trump tapes to the Trump triumph at Washington University. Instead, having condemned the remarks and saying that he was grateful Trump had "expressed remorse" over his comments, he mostly disappeared.