Donald Trump
Donald TrumpReuters

Former President Donald Trump has ruled out choosing former Vice President Mike Pence as his running mate if he decides to take another shot at a second White House term in 2024.

In an interview with the Washington Examiner on Tuesday, Trump said, “I don’t think people would accept it.”

Trump went on to say that tension over the 2020 election, in which Trump contested and wanted Pence to overturn results of the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral collage win, would make a Trump-Pence ticket an impossibility.

Calling Pence a “really fine person,” Trump implied their relationship was beyond repair due to differences over the election.

“Mike and I had a great relationship except for the very important factor that took place at the end. We had a very good relationship,” Trump said.

He added that he hasn’t spoken to Pence in a “long time,” saying in the interview that he was disappointed in him for not going along with his plan to dispute the electoral results.

“Mike thought he was going to be a human conveyor belt, that no matter how fraudulent the votes, you have to send them up to the Old Crow,” Trump said, in reference to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

“But that turned out to be wrong,” Trump continued. “Because now, as you know, they are feverishly working to try and get it so that the vice president cannot do what Mike said he couldn’t do,” Trump said.

He was referring to proposals to amend the Electoral Count Act to take away vice presidential powers. “Obviously, they were either lying, misrepresenting, or they didn’t know."

In recent months, as he considers a possible presidential run himself, Pence has shot back at Trump’s criticisms, saying that Trump was incorrect that as vice president he was within his constitutional powers to change the results of a presidential election.

He also labelled Trump an “apologist for Putin” in a March speech to donors.