‘We ought to set aside this talk’: Pence’s take on systemic racism meets a new test

The vice president is flipping between backing his boss’s tough talk and articulating a more conciliatory approach to the protests sweeping the nation.

As protests unfolded over the latest police killing of a middle-aged black man, an African American bishop asked Mike Pence a simple question: How can you personally reunite a racially splintered nation?

Pence, a devout Christian of the born-again stripe, calmly replied that he would orient the country toward God and away from “voices of division” demanding transformational change — or, in his words, talking “too much”...