In Marinette, Vice President Mike Pence touts U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, blasts impeachment hearings as 'politics as usual'

MARINETTE - Vice President Mike Pence returned to Wisconsin on Wednesday to push for passage of an updated North American trade deal that promises to give U.S. dairy farmers a greater ability to sell their products to Canada and return more manufacturing to the United States.

His visit came just hours after his name was invoked in the most stunning testimony yet in the ongoing House impeachment hearings.

Pence visited Fincantieri Marinette Marine to tout the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and efforts by the President Donald Trump administration that he said have boosted the economy. The vice president also praised the shipbuilder, calling its naval vessels "some of the finest ships at sea in the world."

The Marinette stop comes nearly a month after Pence visited Pleasant Prairie to promote the trade deal, which would replace the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

Leaders in all three countries have approved the trade pact, but it has yet to move out of the U.S. House. Pence urged those in attendance at Fincantieri to push Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Ron Kind to support the deal, saying Wisconsin's Republican representatives are standing with Trump.

"The man who wrote 'The Art of the Deal' ... closed the deal," Pence said of the president. 

House Democrats have spent months hashing out changes to the trade pact with the Trump administration to address labor protections and other issues. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week that a deal is near.

Kind fired back at Pence in a statement Wednesday and accused the vice president of "being political and misleading Wisconsin."

“Unless this trade deal is fully enforceable, Wisconsin farmers, workers and families may lose jobs and opportunities to other countries," he said. "I will keep working diligently with my colleagues so we can finally get USMCA across the finish line."

A 2018 analysis of the new agreement by the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit think tank, indicated that the USMCA is largely similar to NAFTA but offers "marginally greater U.S. access to the Canadian dairy market."

RELATED: What Vice President Pence will see at shipbuilder Marinette Marine

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Pence was scheduled to visit Fincantieri last month but canceled his appearance. His stop Wednesday came amid ongoing concerns about the health of Wisconsin's dairy industry and as campaign season ramps up in a state pivotal to the 2020 presidential election.

The vice president arrived in Marinette with U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Green Bay, just hours after shocking testimony from Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, during Wednesday's impeachment hearing.

Sondland claimed White House officials had direct knowledge of a so-called quid pro quo with Ukraine. According to Sondland, Pence met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sept. 1 in Warsaw, Poland, where Zelensky “raised the issue of security assistance” to the vice president. 

“I mentioned to Vice President Pence before the meetings with the Ukrainians that I had concerns that the delay in aid had become tied to the issue of investigations,” Sondland said.

In a statement Wednesday, Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short, said the conversation Sondland described never took place.

“The Vice President never had a conversation with Gordon Sondland about investigating the Bidens, Burisma, or the conditional release of financial aid to Ukraine based upon potential investigations," Short said.

Pence did not address Sondland's testimony during his remarks in Marinette, but he blasted the impeachment inquiry and accused Democrats in Congress of putting "politics as usual" in front of their jobs at the expense of national defense funding and the USMCA.

"The people of Wisconsin deserve to know that things are getting a little tied up in Washington these days," he said. 

The Marinette shipyard recently signed on to the Trump-led Pledge to America’s Workers, joining nearly 400 other companies in an initiative that aims to increase education and training opportunities for students and workers.

Fincantieri is also planning on a $100 million investment in Marinette that would create 700 jobs, Pence said, "right here in the heart of the heartland." The investment is dependent on Fincantieri winning a contract for the Navy's next-generation guided missile frigate. The contract is expected to be awarded in July. 

Pence said the president's $750 billion defense proposal contains the largest shipbuilding budget request for the U.S. Navy in 20 years, which should benefit Marinette.

The company also received $1.1 million in federal money earlier this year through the U.S. Department of Transportation's small shipyard grant program. Trump's recent budget proposals did not authorize new funding for the grants, but Congress secured $20 million for the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years.

Pence arrived about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport and headed to Marinette. Prior to his stop at Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Pence stopped to visit with students at Garfield Elementary School in Marinette.

On his way out of Marinette, the vice president's motorcade stopped at Mickey-Lu Bar-B-Q where Pence had a hamburger.

Democrats held an event Wednesday morning in Green Bay to counter Pence's visit. 

"Donald Trump and his administration have been a disaster for hard working Wisconsinites, and no amount of lip service will change the hardship so many in our state are feeling," said Philip Shulman, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. 

USA TODAY contributed to this report.

Contact Haley BeMiller at 920-431-8212 or hbemiller@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @haleybemiller.