Vice-President-Elect Mike Pence Says "Smoking Doesn't Kill"

The U.S. will soon have a Vice-President who denies the health dangers of smoking cigarettes. The Former Indiana governor and U.S Congressman has consistently argued that there is no causal link between smoking and lung cancer. In 2000 he wrote, "Time for a quick reality check. Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill." He has yet to change his position.

The Surgeon General of the United States clearly identified the risks associated with smoking in a report released back in 1964. Since then, nearly all states have set up smoking cessation programs. Mike Pence cut funding for Indiana's smoking cessation program when he was Indiana's governor while receiving generous campaign contributions from the tobacco industry, according to a ThinkProgress investigative report.

You can't dismiss away overwhelming scientific evidence just because it isn't politically expedient. Smoking does kill, Mr. Vice-President-Elect.