Ahead of Trump fundraiser, Vice President Mike Pence pushes U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal – Tennessean
A previous version of this story misspelled U.S. Secretary of Agriculture’s Sonny Perdue’s last name. It has been updated with the correct spelling.
Vice President Mike Pence came to Nashville to tout a new trade deal on Monday during a public event before appearing at a private fundraiser for President Donald Trump.
“I came to Tennessee today to say it’s time for Congress to pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement and to pass it this year,” he said while speaking at the Goodlettsville Tyson Foods plant from where packaged beef and pork are shipped to grocery stores around the country.
Pence toured the facility, which is not involved in international exports. The company, however, exports roughly $5 billion in products each year.
A few hundred Tennessee Republicans filed into rows of folding chairs set up in the plant’s employee cafeteria, arriving hours before the vice president took the stage to speak in favor of the USMCA trade deal.
The USMCA, a deal that, if passed, would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. It could soon come for a vote in Congress.
While Democrats have proposed changes to the deal in favor of more regulations on environmental and labor issues, ongoing impeachment efforts against Trump could interfere with bipartisan negotiations on the trade agreement.
“It’s time for Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress to set politics aside and pass the USMCA,” Pence said, surrounded on stage by uniformed Tyson employees.
Pence announced Tyson was creating another Tennessee plant, this one in the western part of the state. It is expected to create 1,500 jobs, the vice president said.
After the crowd heard remarks from a Tyson representative in favor of USMCA, Gov. Bill Lee welcomed Pence and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, the former Georgia governor.
Lee praised Pence and Perdue’s efforts to pass the trade agreement, noting his own family has spent decades raising livestock in rural Williamson County.
Lee discussed how Tennessee would be impacted by the trade agreement.
“There’s a lot hinging on the ability for our farmers to trade with our North American farmers,” the governor said, contending that $2.2 billion of agricultural trade would be “unleashed” as a result of the agreement.
Pence praises Tennessee’s GOP delegation, calls out Nashville, Memphis Democratic congressmen
In his speech, which included campaign slogans from Trump’s first presidential election bid, Pence praised Lee, whom he called a man of integrity. He also thanked Tennessee’s U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn for their support of the trade deal.
“They’re working the hallways, they’re working the floor of the Senate,” Pence said in reference to Alexander and Blackburn’s efforts.
Pence noted the governor had been making an “incredible difference” in the job. He praised Trump’s “two-and-a-half years of promises made and promises kept” on the economy, job creation and secure borders.
Several members of Tennessee’s congressional delegation came to Goodlettsville for the event, including Republican U.S. Reps. Tim Burchett, Chuck Fleischmann, David Kustoff and John Rose.
Pence described them as “conservative champions” in the U.S. House, and also thanked them for their support of USMCA while urging Tennesseans to reach out to U.S. Reps. Jim Cooper and Steve Cohen, who he named as opponents of the deal.
The vice president made an apparent reference to past and ongoing investigations against Trump, including an impeachment inquiry led by Democrats, saying the president’s accomplishments in office had occurred despite “endless investigations trying to overturn the will of the American people.”
After Tyson appearance, Pence scheduled for Huckabee show, Trump fundraiser
Pence’s appearance at Tyson came before a scheduled fundraiser dinner for Trump’s campaign for reelection.
The fundraiser, with tickets ranging from $1,000 to $100,000, was Monday night at a private home in Franklin.
The vice president also recorded an episode of “Huckabee,” a talk show hosted by former Arkansas governor and two-time Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, according to Pence’s staff.
The show on Trinity Broadcasting Network is filmed at a studio in Hendersonville.
House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, was among the few Republican members of the statehouse that were in attendance at the event.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2020, was at the Nashville airport to greet Pence as he arrived. Meanwhile, at the Tyson event, a number of attendees were wearing stickers showing support for Manny Sethi, another Republican running for the Senate seat.
Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.
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Published 11:24 PM EDT Oct 7, 2019
