This archive report was first published on 20 June 2020.
On Juneteenth, a day that marks the end of slavery in America, Vice President Mike Pence was interviewed by 6ABC Action News in Philadelphia. The interview took place on June 19, 2020, a day that coincided with the country's ongoing protests against racial injustice.
During the interview, Mr. Pence twice refused to say that 'black lives matter,' instead insisting that 'all lives matter in a very real sense.' This assertion has been criticized by activists and others who say that the phrase dilutes the issue and fails to acknowledge the specific threats that African-Americans still face at the hands of police officers in the United States.
Mr. Pence's comments came at a time when the country is still reeling from the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month. President Trump has been under fire for his response to protests in cities across the nation, with his tweets calling for aggressive action by the police to quell violence angering activists.
Mr. Pence's insistence that 'all lives matter' is likely to be seen as a provocation by those who say that phrase fails to acknowledge the specific struggles faced by African-Americans. In the interview, news anchor Brian Taff pressed Mr. Pence on this point, asking him why he would not say that 'black lives matter.'
Mr. Pence responded by saying that he did not accept that 'there's a segment of American society that disagrees, in the preciousness and importance of every human life.' He again refused to say that black lives matter, despite being pressed on the issue multiple times.
Mr. Pence is due to arrive in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday to join President Trump for a Make America Great Again! rally that evening. Tulsa was the site of one of the nation's worst examples of racial violence when a white mob laid siege to a prosperous black neighborhood, killing hundreds of people in 1921.
