“Our Focus Now Is on Healing,” Mike Pence Tells Black Faith Leaders at Listening Session

Saying the “focus is now on healing” America, Vice President Mike Pence took part in a listening session Friday with faith and community leaders at a Maryland church that highlighted strategies to bring the country together following the death of George Floyd. 

“My prayer is that we as a nation have ears to hear — to listen to one another, and open hearts,” Pence told the leaders. “I’m really here to listen.”

Most of the leaders in the room were black.

Bishop Harry Jackson Jr., who is black and serves as the pastor of host Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md., said Floyd’s death was “representative of an almost 400-year history and challenges that we’ve had.” Jackson’s father, he said, was “threatened at gunpoint” by a Florida state trooper more than 60 years ago. The gun discharged, sending a round over the father’s head that temporarily deafened him. Jackson’s family moved out of the South because of the incident.

“So, this administration did not create this problem with this backdrop, but it has the opportunity to heal it,” Jackson said.

Pence referenced the Trump administration’s signing of the criminal reform bill and its champion of expanding educational opportunities – policy positions he said assists the black community.

“This was all in an effort to address what have been the historic inequalities in our African…