Mike Pence said Friday that he would not endorse the former president Donald Trump In the 2024 presidential race, months after the former vice-pres put forward his candidacy for the presidency.
“It’s no surprise that I’m not endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence said of his former running mate during an interview with Fox News this afternoon. “Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is antithetical to the conservative agenda we’ve run for four years, and that’s why I can’t honestly support Donald Trump in this campaign.”
Trump’s former running mate said that while he is “incredibly proud of our administration’s record,” he and Trump disagree on a number of issues.
“During my presidential campaign, I made it clear that President Trump and I have deep differences on a number of issues, not least our difference on the constitutional duties I took on January 6,” Pence said.
Among their differences are Pence’s attitude toward the national debt, abortion rights, and Trump’s inversion on legislation forcing the sale of TikTok, whose parent company is China-based ByteDance.
A spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
There is Trump it drew criticism from abortion opponents for refusing to support a federal abortion ban and calling Florida’s six-week ban “very hard.”
Despite these criticisms, Trump requested a loan Highlights his role in nominating the three Supreme Court justices who voted in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending precedent on the constitutional right to abortion.
Earlier this week, the former president also reverse course On Capitol Hill about legislation that would ban TikTok unless it cuts ties with ByteDance, which has raised national security concerns. Now, Trump said Monday opposes the ban on the video-sharing social media platform “because there are a lot of talkative people who love it.”
During the presidential campaign last year, Pence told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that Trump “moving away” from conservative principlesincluding a “clear commitment to the right to life” and accused Trump of taking a “Joe Biden-like” stance on the national debt.
In 2024, many former rivals backed Trump after they ended their bids. After ending his bid following the Iowa caucuses in January, the businessman Vivek Ramaswamy He supported Trump. Days later, after suspending his presidential bid, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis supported the former president.
Senator Tim Scott, RS.C., former presidential candidate and a potential vice presidential pickalso is supported Trump’s presidential candidacy.
But others have not lined up behind the likely candidate. Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who ended her presidential candidacy this month, did not support Trump and He spoke to NBC News’ “Meet the Press” earlier this month he is no longer bound by his pledge to the Republican National Committee to endorse the GOP presidential nominee. There’s Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey Exception He’s voting for Trump, though he added that he “can’t imagine” voting for President Joe Biden.
President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign seized on Pence’s comments and pointed to other former senior administration officials who served in the Trump administration. I haven’t been support himincluding former Attorney General Bill Barr.
“Those who have worked with Donald Trump at the highest levels of his administration think he is too dangerous, too selfish and too extreme – and we agree,” campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said.