Former US Vice President Mike Pence declined to say on Thursday whether he would back Donald Trump if he were to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.
Speaking to The Associated Press, Pence, widely expected to seek the nomination himself, suggested that Trump’s leadership style isn’t what the party needs in the upcoming White House race.
“I think we’ll have better choices,” Pence said, adding, “I’m persuaded that no one could have defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 except Donald Trump, but I think we live in a different time and it calls for different leadership.”
Pence and Trump have been at odds since the violent storming of the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by Trump’s supporters.
Pence has been critical of Trump’s comments before the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“I believe that everyone who rioted at the Capitol needs to be held in the strictest account of the law. I said it that day and it continues to be my position,” he stated last November.
“I do believe that when I saw that tweet [by Trump] come across, that criticized me directly at a time that a riot was raging at the Capitol hallways, that the President's words were reckless, and they endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol building. But quite frankly, I didn’t have time for it. The President had decided to be a part of the problem. I was determined to be a part of the solution.”
Pence was also critical of Trump’s hosting white nationalist Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and called on the former President to apologize, though he also stressed he did not think Trump is antisemitic.
Pence reiterated on Thursday that he would make a decision about 2024 “by the spring.” Already in the race are Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Others who could join them include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
“The American people want us to return to the policies of the Trump-Pence administration, but I think they want to see leadership that reflects more of the character of the American people: namely the commitment to principle and the civility that Americans show each other every day,” Pence told AP. “And so, if we enter the fray, we will offer that kind of leadership.”