Mike Pence Disavows Evolution And Gay Rights, But Still Thinks Smoking Won’t Kill You

Vice president-elect Mike Pence believes that cigarettes don’t kill people, but he doesn’t believe in evolution. The newly confirmed vice president-elect often acts as the counter balance to his outlandish running mate, Donald Trump, but Pence still holds some very unusual ideas that could continue to hold the United States back during his time in office.

In 2000, Business Insider reported that Pence believed smoking cigarettes doesn’t kill people. The FDA has enforced warning labels on cigarette packs for more than 30 years, but Pence defended the statement during an op-ed article he published when running for office.

Pence expressed his opinion when running for an open U.S. House seat in Indiana. He opposed a proposed settlement between big tobacco companies and the government because he deemed the agreement too “big government.” During the 2000 U.S. House race, Pence was actually in the pocket of big tobacco.

According to Think Progress, companies such as Brown & Williamson, Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and U.S. Tobacco gave Pence between $5,000 and $13,000 in campaign contributions.

Pence said in his pro-smoking op-ed piece, “Time for a quick reality check. Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn’t kill. In fact, 2 out of every three smokers does not die from a smoking related illness and 9 out of ten smokers do not contract lung cancer.”

Considering the verifiable link between smoking, lung cancer, and other upper respiratory diseases, Pence’s argument seems ludicrous at best. However, during the piece, the vice president-elect also added, “news flash: smoking is not good for you” which calls into question his whole purpose for writing the piece.

Pence’s off-putting views on cigarettes and their negative side effects is perplexing when compared to his disbelief in evolution. In 2002, the vice president-elect delivered a speech to the U.S. House of Representatives denying Darwin’s theory of evolution and minimizing it with the now familiar argument that it is “just a theory.”

As reported by Forbes, Pence invoked the Scopes Monkey Trial and said that evolution has caused noticeable consequences in the classroom and the country. Pence has not denied his stance on evolution since the 2002 U.S. House of Representatives speech, but he hasn’t made the issue a main part of his political platform.

Pence’s stance on tobacco and evolution may seem unrelated, but they both speak to his ability to make science a partisan issue. As Pence said, evolution is “just a theory,” but he misrepresented the gravitas that a theory holds in the scientific community. A theory, including the theory of evolution, is demonstrated with the highest degree of verification.

However, Pence will conveniently sideline the theory of evolution, but take the word and money of tobacco company hucksters. The issue is that Pence has a history of delivering misinformation about topics that are not up for political debate. Both evolution and tobacco’s link to preventable diseases have been confirmed with scientific certainty.

The true danger in Pence’s willingness to politicize data lies more in his social policies. Pence, who is a self-proclaimed Christian, has also supported pouring funding into conversion therapy, which has been proven to do more harm than good for the participant. Conversion therapy is designed to deliver negative enforcement to gay or gender non-conforming children and adults. Some conversion therapies even go so far as to use electroshock therapy, which has not been scientifically proven to work in any capacity.

Pence also has a history of fighting against progressive legislature in order to protect the religious liberties of Christians. He opposed the constitutional amendment to marriage equality and defended Indiana’s religious liberty law which allowed business owners to deny service to anyone of their choosing. Pence has often linked opposing LGBTQIAA positive legislature on his Christian beliefs.

Pence can’t pick and choose the cause and effect of science, which is exactly what he’s done with both his tobacco and evolution claims. The truly alarming thing is that Pence is willing to deliver misinformation in exchange for campaign contributions.

If Pence’s opinions about evolution and tobacco are any indication, then Pence may offer a number of surprises during his time in the White House.

[Featured Image by Darron Cummings/AP Images]