Former Vice President Mike Pence says he will not be backing Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year," Pence said in an interview with Fox News Channel on Friday, weighing in for the first time since the former president became the presumptive GOP nominee. Pence ran against Trump for their party's nomination but dropped his bid before voting began last year.
The decision makes Pence the latest in a series of senior Trump administration officials who have declined to endorse their former boss's bid to return to the Oval Office. While Republican members of Congress and other GOP officials have largely rallied behind Trump, a vocal minority has continued to oppose his bid.
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It also marks the end of a metamorphosis for Pence, who had long been seen as one of Trump's most loyal defenders but broke with his two-time running mate by refusing to go along with Trump's unconstitutional scheme to try to remain in power after losing the 2020 election.
In order to participate in the Republican primary debates, Pence was required to sign a pledge saying that he would support the party's eventual nominee. And during the first debate in Milwaukee, Pence was among the candidates who raised their hands when asked whether they would support Trump even if he were convicted in one of his four criminal indictments.
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When Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, trying to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden's win, Pence was forced to flee to a Senate loading dock as rioters chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!” outside.
But Pence had made clear he had come to harbour serious reservations about Trump's actions and his policy stances.
“I believe anyone that puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again,” he said during his campaign launch speech.
As the campaign progressed, he raised alarms about the party's resistance to sending aid to Ukraine and called on his fellow Republicans to reject what he called the “siren song of populism” espoused by Trump and his followers.
