“There’s no place like home.”
Those words, famously uttered by Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” were also spoken by the now former Vice President Mike Pence as he returned to his hometown of Columbus Wednesday after attending the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
After the inauguration in Washington, Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff escorted Pence and his wife Karen to a black Chevrolet Suburban SUV outside the U.S. Capitol. The couple, with daughters Charlotte and Audrey, then flew into Columbus Municipal Airport at about 2:50 p.m. Wednesday on a government plane.
They were welcomed by a crowd initially limited to about 50 guests, but eventually growing larger than that, which included local and state officials, as well as family members such as U.S. Representative Greg Pence, brother to the former vice president.
“Serving as your vice president was the greatest honor of our life, but now that that season of service has come to an end, we just had to come home,” Mike Pence said, as he stood on-stage beside his family, behind a sign on the credenza that said “Back Home Again.”
It is not clear if Pence plans to reside in Columbus after leaving office. However, he did say that he has promised Karen that they are moving back to Indiana come summertime.
After some initial remarks by Indiana GOP chairman Kyle Hupfer, Lt. Gov Suzanne Crouch, Congressman Greg Pence and Karen, the now former vice president spoke to his supporters. He expressed his gratitude to them and many others — including God, his friends, his family, the people of Indiana and his staff.
He also thanked Donald and Melania Trump “for all they have done to make America great again.”
“We’ll always be grateful for the opportunity that they gave us to serve and the way that they allowed us to make a difference in the life of this nation,” he said.
Also, while he expressed his sympathy for those who have lost loved ones due to COVID-19, he said he was “proud” of the Trump administration’s response to the crisis. He was placed in charge of the pandemic task force by Trump last year.
“We’ve arrived at the beginning of the end of this pandemic,” he said.
Pence also offered his congratulations to Biden and Harris.
With Pence’s term as vice president at its end, there has been much speculation about what his plans are and whether he is eyeing a potential run at the presidency in 2024, according to The Associated Press.
Pence did not say in his address if a presidential run is in the cards or not. He also did not comment on the recent insurrection at the Capitol.
Others from Indiana were also on the inaugural platform as Chief Justice John Roberts, who grew up in the northwestern Indiana town of Long Beach, administered the oath of office to Biden. Other guests included former Vice President Dan Quayle, a former Indiana senator who now lives in Arizona, and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, whom Biden has nominated to become transportation secretary.
Earlier this month, Pence defied now former President Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to pressure him to use powers he did not have to decertify Electoral College votes during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6.
Trump had falsely claimed on numerous occasions that Pence, who presided over the joint session, had unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted.
Neither the Constitution nor congressional statute grants the vice president any such powers, according to wire reports. It is up to the House and Senate to voice objections, and states’ electors were chosen in accordance with state law, not fraudulently.
During the session on Jan. 6, a violent mob of Trump supporters forced their way into the Capitol in a failed attempt to halt the certification of Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, resulting in five deaths.
Trump and Pence went five days without speaking with each other after the Capitol insurrection, but later had a “good conversation” in the Oval Office on Jan. 11 and came to a détente, according to wire reports.
In 2017, Pence told The Republic that he and Trump had “become good friends.”
Pence, who has described himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order,” was selected by Trump to be his running mate in July 2016.
The future vice president served as Indiana governor from 2013 to 2017 and spent six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013.
“As we worked the last four years to make America great again, I saw the greatness of the American people every single day,” Pence said at his homecoming on Wednesday. “And I am more convinced than ever that while we don’t know what the future holds, we know who holds the future. And I’m absolutely confident that the best days for this one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, are yet to come.”
