Vice President Mike Pence tells crowd in Rosemont they are ‘young patriots’ who will lead Trump to re-election

March 30-- Mar. 30--Vice President Mike Pence told a conservative youth advocacy group Friday that they were the "young patriots" of a rising generation whose perseverance is key to shifting minds and securing a 2020 election victory for President Donald Trump.

"Make no mistake about it. The challenge before us is not just about winning an election. We must win the next generation. And that's where you all come in. Your values, your character, make you leaders in this rising generation. You stand out," Pence said in suburban Rosemont at the Midwest conference of Turning Point USA, a conservative college and high school advocacy group.

"Those of us who stand for conservative values are going to face opposition and criticism and even ridicule. It comes with the territory. That's where perseverance comes in. You have to turn your face like flint against the wind. And first, expect it, because you won't be disappointed," Pence said.

In a 35-minute speech to several hundred people in a hotel ballroom, Pence often hailed the group, which seeks to enforce the availability of conservative commentary and advocacy while combating what it calls liberalism at colleges and universities. The group was founded in Lemont by Charlie Kirk, an Illinois native.

Pence's visit came little more than a week after Trump signed an executive order aimed at ensuring that colleges and universities that receive federal funding allow free speech on campus -- a move that followed instances of conservative speakers being heckled or having college appearances canceled by administrators.

Kirk, who is close to Trump, attended the signing of the executive order.

"There's a real battle in our country today. It's a battle over the closing of the American mind and each of you are on the front lines," Pence said, citing a recent physical attack on a Turning Point member at the University of California at Berkeley.

"We will not stand idly by and allow public institutions to violate their students' constitutional rights," the vice president said. "Don't doubt for a second the American people are with us."

Several college officials have said the executive order is redundant with current law and some have feared attempts at creating speech codes defining what can be said on campus and how it would conflict with the First Amendment.

With the tenor of Pence's speech often resembling a political rally, he received the largest applause and several standing ovations when he discussed the need to oppose abortion as Democrats press for more protections for abortion rights.

"Life is winning in America because of this rising generation. But for all the progress we're making for life, tragically, that at the very moment more and more Americans are recognizing the sanctity and preciousness of every life, leading members of the Democratic Party are embracing a radical agenda of abortion on demand," he said.

Pence also delivered a defense of the Trump administration's efforts to curtail illegal immigration on the nation's southern border. He noted Trump's threat to shut down the border or large parts of it unless Mexico worked to curtail people seeking to cross the border illegally.

"No matter what you heard from the Democrats and their allies in the media, we have a crisis on the southern border and it's like nothing we've ever seen before," he said. "Democrats say it's a manufactured crisis, but the only thing that's manufactured is their outrage."

Pence said the filing of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on his investigation into alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign "was a total vindication of the president of the United States and our administration" after two years of "reckless accusations by Democrats and members of the media."

With Democrats calling for the release of the complete and unredacted Mueller report of more than 300 pages, the Trump administration has relied on a four-page memo from Attorney General William Barr, which reported Mueller found no evidence the Trump campaign "conspired or coordinated" with Russia. In the meantime, Pence said the Trump administration was moving forward to "continue to focus where we have from the very beginning, on the issues that are important to this country."

Last July, Pence made another rally-type speech at a hotel outside of O'Hare International Airport. It was there that then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, embraced Trump and called the vice president one of the "greatest leaders in American history" as Rauner sought re-election. Rauner, seeking to unify a divided Republican electorate, said Indiana under Pence's governorship had become a "role model" for what Illinois needed to do.

Rauner, who had an uneasy political relationship with the Trump administration, ultimately lost the election to now-Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Pence on Saturday is scheduled to travel to South Carolina to speak at the campaign kickoff for Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham's re-election bid.

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