John McCain: Four things to know about Vice President Mike Pence's American Legion speech

Maureen Groppe | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Americans salute, pay respects to the late Senator John McCain With a salute and a prayer, Americans came to the Arizona Capitol to pay their respects to Senator John McCain.

WASHINGTON – Vice President Mike Pence delivered keynote remarks at the American Legion’s 100th National Convention Thursday, during a trip to Minneapolis that also included a fundraiser for Republicans.

Here's what you need to know about his speech to veterans:

1. He praised John McCain

At the top of his remarks, Pence praised the late Sen. John McCain, "a particular veteran that I know is on the hearts and minds of people all across America as we gather here."

As McCain was being eulogized at a service in Arizona Thursday, Pence noted McCain "did not yield" during the Vietnam veteran's more than five years as a prisoner of war. And during his years in Congress, Pence said, McCain became "one of the most unwavering advocates of our armed forces to ever serve."

“I can assure you, America will always remember and honor the lifetime of service of United States Sen. John McCain," Pence said.

His remarks were notable because the American Legion was among the veterans groups that criticized Trump Monday, saying he should have shown greater respect for McCain by flying the White House flags at half-staff through his burial and issuing a presidential proclamation in his honor. Trump eventually did both. But it's Pence, not Trump, who will speak at Friday's ceremony in the Capitol honoring McCain.

2. He called out Russia

Addressing the national security threats facing the nation, Pence said: "Russia and China challenge American power and influence wherever they can."

"Today, America is no longer ignoring these threats," Pence said. "Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump, we are confronting these challenges head on."

But Trump has shown a reluctance to go after Russia. He often says he wants to improve U.S.-Russia relations, and he has repeatedly downplayed or even discounted Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. At a recent summit with Vladimir Putin, Trump seemed to accept the Russian leader’s denials over the conclusions of American intelligence agencies, which found that the Kremlin directed the election interference.

3. He entered the debate about who gave Americans their freedom

Pence revived the 50-year-old words of an Army veteran who said: "It is the soldier, not the minister, who has given us freedom of religion. It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech."

His comments may or may not have been intended as a response to Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas. Defending NFL players' right to protest in a recent video that went viral, O'Rourke said "the freedoms we have were purchased not just by those in uniform" but also by Freedom Riders and other civil rights protesters – "those who were punched in the face, spat upon, dragged out by their collar from the Woolworth lunch counter, for sitting with white people at the same lunch counter in the same country where their fathers may have bled the same blood on the battlefields of Omaha Beach or Okinawa or anywhere where anyone served this country."

4. He relived his oratorical successes from high school

The emcee who introduced Pence noted that, as a high school senior, Pence won the American Legion’s Indiana Oratorical Contest.

"I guess that scholarship was put to good use," she said.

To prepare for the contest, Pence relied heavily on the "Growth and Development of the American Constitution," by Loren Noblitt, reading it over and over.

"It began my lifelong love," he told the American Legion Thursday, "for the Constitution of the United States."

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