(18 Jul 2019) U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has hailed the role that religious freedom has played in the history of America.
Pence was speaking at an international religious freedom conference hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday.
The Vice President said, first settlers in America "carved protections for religious liberty into the founding charters of our nation and our very earliest laws. And after our independence was won, the crafters of America's Constitution enshrined religious liberty as the first of our American freedoms."
Speaking at the conference, Pence, an evangelical Christian, promoted America's commitment to religious freedom at a time the administration has criticized the faith of at least one U.S. lawmaker.
President Donald Trump has ratcheted up his comments about four progressive Democratic lawmakers of color who the president said this weekend should leave the country and "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came" over their criticism of his administration.
President Trump falsely accused Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Muslim, of expressing pride in terrorists, by quoting Omar as saying "You don't say 'America' with this intensity. You say 'al-Qaida,' it makes you proud. Al-Qaida makes you proud. You don't speak that way about America." This is a wholly distorted account of what the Minnesota Democrat said. She did not voice pride in the terrorist group.
Trump also cites a history of Omar "launching vicious anti-Semitic" statements. Omar ignited a bipartisan uproar in Washington and Minnesota during her first weeks in Congress this year when she suggested on Twitter that members of Congress support Israel for money.
A few weeks before her "It's all about the Benjamins baby" tweet, a 2012 tweet surfaced in which she said Israel "hypnotized the world." She denied anti-Semitism was intended and apologized for both episodes.
Pence in his remarks at the religious conference said, "Americans believe that people should live by the dictates of their conscience, not the diktats of government. And we're proud -- proud that our long tradition of inspiring other nations to embrace religious freedom and respect for human rights has ushered in important improvements in the lives of people all over the world."
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