Former Vice President Mike Pence on new book, President Trump’s second term and more

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Former Vice President Mike Pence spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about his new book, "What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience."

The book is about former Vice President Pence explaining why the Republican Party must choose enduring conservative principles over the temptations of big-government populism.

According to Brennan, the former vice president wrote "For many right-wing populists, grievance dictates policy," leading her to ask Pence who or what he was thinking about when he wrote it, and he said:

"From all of my adult life, the Republican Party has been defined by a commitment to a conservative agenda to America as leader of the free world, to limited government, free market, economics, and traditional moral values, especially the right to life. And I'm proud to say that from the Reagan administration to the first Trump Administration, we governed on that agenda, but I wrote 'What Conservatives Believe,' because just in the last four or five years, there's been a rise of what I call the populist right that focuses more on what we're against than what we're for, focuses more on grievance than a positive conservative agenda. I mean the conservative movement has always been battling politically with the progressive left, but now there's a new threat from the populist right that would embrace policies of isolationism abroad, that would embrace big government and protectionism at home, marginalize the right to life, and as we go into this fall's elections, and go into 2028, I thought it was important that we take a moment as a party and as a movement to remind ourselves what we believe."

Brennan and Pence also talked about President Donald Trump's second term in office.

"I think the second Trump administration has got a lot right. They got the border secured after the worst border crisis in American history. They extended those Trump-Pence tax cuts that we passed in their entirety. They've stood without apology for our cherished ally, Israel, and took the fight directly to Iran. But on other instances, you've seen the impact and the embrace by the President and people around him of the politics of the populist right, the price controls on credit cards and pharmaceuticals, nationalization of American businesses, of course, broad-based tariffs on friend and foe alike, add to that marginalizing the right to life, doing nothing about the broad distribution of the abortion pill by mail that Joe Biden's administration made possible, and then, the stops and starts on Ukraine, while they've been strong on Israel, strong with Iran. The stops and starts reflect more the politics of the progressive left and appeasement than that time-honored conservative agenda that's defined our party at home and abroad."

During the interview, Brennan and Pence talked about the recent Texas primary, with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeating incumbent Sen. John Cornyn to be the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate.

However, Paxton has faced high-profile scandals, including a 2023 impeachment by the Republican-controlled State House, though the State Senate acquitted him, and a messy public divorce, with his wife citing "biblical grounds."

This prompted Brennan to ask the former vice president if Paxton's character represents the Republican Party after he wrote in his book that character matters, to which Pence said:

"As I write in my book, I think character, integrity to principle, are enormously important in the life of our movement, in the life of our nation. But when I look at the Texas primary, when I look at Louisiana, Kentucky, Indiana's many state senate races, I see it more as a reflection of the grip that President Trump has on Republican primary voters who are grateful for the way that he has stood up and fought against the radical left. You look at where the Democratic Party is today. I mean, it's amazing to see if Republicans, in part, have lost our way with the embrace of the populist right. Democrats have gone over the beam with embracing socialist candidates, socialist policies. I think Republican voters want to push back on that. They respect the president's views. I just want to make sure people understand that as we sort through all these elections this year, that there's a new force afoot in the Republican Party, and I think we've got to get back to those core values and principles that have always made our country and our party strong and prosperous."

Later in the interview, Brennan and Pence talked about a federal appeals court throwing out, at the DOJ's request, the convictions of four members of the Oath Keepers, who were involved in the January 6 riot.

When asked if he thinks the Trump Administration is deliberately whitewashing what happened on January 6, Pence said:

"I've certainly seen evidence of that, particularly I was offended on the anniversary of January 6 when the White House put out a timeline that literally blamed Capitol Hill police for the riot that took place that day. Look, I'm very confident that of the judgment of history in the years ahead about our role, about all the Republicans and Democrats who returned that day after Capitol Police secured the Capitol, and we all did our duty under the Constitution, but, but there's clearly been an effort by some to rewrite that history, but I don't expect it'll work."

"What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative" will be available in stores and online Tuesday, June 2, 2026.

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Pence, click here.