Pence: American manufacturing key to US defense amid Russia, North Korea threats

As security pressures mount, with new threats this week from Russia and heightened tensions with North Korea, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that American manufacturers are the backbone of the United States' defense system.

“In this time of widening challenges and unknowable threats … We do not build Navy ships and aircraft and the weapons that defend our freedom, we do not fill the arsenal of democracy without [manufacturers],” the vice president said during a speech before the National Association of Manufacturers in Washington, D.C.

After a U.S. Navy fighter jet shot down a Syrian warplane, Russia warned this week that U.S. planes flying over the same airspace would be considered “air targets.”

Pence also addressed the growing threat from North Korea after the death Monday of 22-year old college student Otto Wambier, who was returned to his family in a coma after being detained in North Korea for nearly a year and a half. While investigators are still trying to determine the exact cause of his death, his parents have cited “awful, torturous mistreatment.”

“The United States of America condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn their latest victim,” Pence said.

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As Pence honored 7 American sailors killed when a Navy destroyer collided with a container ship off of the coast of Japan, the vice president said strong manufacturing remains essential for the country to produce products that will protect our citizens and soldiers.

“Together we will make American prosperous again, together we will make America safe again and to borrow a phrase, together we will make America great again,” Vice President Pence said.

The vice president also said the administration will work with businesses to create new jobs and also to fill open positions with its newly announced apprenticeship expansion program. Pence said they will continue to eliminate job crushing regulations, while repealing and replacing the ObamaCare – which is to be completed by the “end of this summer.”