TAMPA, Florida — Vice President Mike Pence told Breitbart News exclusively on Thursday that the Senate’s passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement is a “huge win” for American workers and farmers.
Pence’s exclusive interview with Breitbart News, which came on his bus tour between Tampa and Orlando, for which he was conducting a campaign swing up the all-important I-4 corridor in the Sunshine State, came moments after the U.S. Senate passed the USMCA, 89-10. The overwhelming Senate vote came a month after the House in mid-December similarly passed the deal with overwhelming bipartisan support, as the USMCA sailed through the lower chamber last year with 385 votes.
“USMCA is a huge win for American workers and American farmers,” Pence told Breitbart News. “It is a historic achievement following decades of shuttered factories and lost jobs in the wake of NAFTA.”
During his trip here in a pair of speeches, one in Tampa and another in the Orlando suburb Kissimmee, Pence emphasized President Donald Trump’s theme of “promises made, promises kept.” In his interview with Breitbart News moments after the U.S. Senate passed the deal, thereby setting it up for President Trump to sign it, which he is expected to do soon, Pence emphasized that point. He noted that this was one of the biggest promises Trump made in 2016—to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—which he has now delivered on.
“President Trump as a candidate promised we would renegotiate our trading agreement with Canada and Mexico,” Pence said.
Pence also noted that he personally watched the president in negotiations with Mexico’s outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto—who has been succeeded by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador—and with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“I was there every step of the way as the president worked relentlessly negotiating with the outgoing president in Mexico and Prime Minister Trudeau in Canada,” Pence said. “He drove a hard bargain.”
Pence added that the overwhelming bipartisan votes in both chambers demonstrate that even Democrats could not deny the economic successes that USMCA is set to bring the country. The deal is expected to create 176,000 U.S. jobs, as well as add more than $60 billion to the U.S. economy, according to independent reviews.
“I think the vote you saw in the House of Representatives, the vote you saw in the United States Senate, gave evidence to the fact that even Democrats in Washington recognize that this is a win for the American people and would not have been possible except for the leadership and determination of President Donald Trump,” Pence said.
This is the first part of Pence’s exclusive interview with Breitbart News, for which Breitbart News accompanied him to Florida on Air Force Two this week. More from that interview is forthcoming.
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