Mike Pence again refuses to say 'Black lives matter' and accuses racial justice movement leaders of supporting violence

• Vice President Mike Pence again refused to say "Black lives matter" and instead insisted that "all life matters, born and unborn," during a Sunday interview with CBS News' "Face the Nation."
• "I really believe that all lives matter," the vice president said after accusing Black Lives Matter movement leaders of pushing a "radical-left agenda."
• Pence also falsely claimed the leaders of the movement "support calls" for violence.
• The vice president's interview aired just hours after President Donald Trump tweeted a video of his supporters at a retirement community in Florida in which one Trump fan chanted "white power."

Vice President Mike Pence has once again refused to say "Black lives matter," instead insisting during an interview Sunday that "all life matters, born and unborn."

"I cherish the progress that we have made toward a more perfect union for African Americans throughout our history. And I've aspired throughout my career to be a part of that ongoing work," Pence said during a Sunday interview with CBS News' "Face the Nation."

"And as a pro-life American, I also believe that all life matters, born and unborn," he added.

Pence condemned both the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the looting that took place soon after in some places amid nationwide protests over Floyd's death.

The vice president said he didn't support the Black Lives Matter movement because its leaders were calling to defund police departments and reallocate taxpayer money to social services, and he falsely claimed the leaders "support calls" for violence.

"What I see in the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement is a political agenda of the radical left that would defund the police, that would tear down monuments, that would press a radical-left agenda, and support calls for the kind of violence that has beset the very communities that they say they're advocating for," he said.

Dickerson pressed Pence to answer, "So you won't say Black lives matter?"

"John, I really believe that all lives matter," the vice president responded.

This comes as Republicans and Democrats in Congress have failed to reach consensus on legislation to address the national calls for police reform and racial justice.

Pence's remarks aired the same day when President Donald Trump tweeted a video of his supporters at a retirement community in Florida in which one Trump fan chanted "white power." The president's tweet praising those he called "great people" in the video was deleted a few hours later, and a White House representative insisted Trump hadn't watched the clip before he sent it out to his more than 82 million followers.

On Juneteenth, Pence also refused to say "Black lives matter," telling an ABC affiliate in Philadelphia that "all lives matter in a very real sense."