Former Vice President Mike Pence said he will not be endorsing his former running mate, Donald Trump, in the 2024 presidential election.
“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence told Fox News Friday. “Look, I’m incredibly proud of the record of our administration. It was a conservative record that made America more prosperous, more secure and saw conservatives appointed to our courts in a more peaceful world.”
“But that being said, during my presidential campaign, I made it clear there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues,” he continued. “And not just our difference on my constitutional duties that I exercised on January 6th.”
Pence was a loyal vice-president to Trump but their relationship soured after Trump urged him to not certify the results of the 2020 presidential election in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. Pence refused and a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to overturn the results of the election while chanting “hang Mike Pence.”
Pence has since become a critic of the former president and launched a short-lived campaign to challenge him for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
Pence also said he has policy differences with Trump in 2024 that contributed to his decision not to endorse his former boss.
“I’ve seen him walking away from our commitment to confronting the national debt,” Pence said. “I’ve seen him starting to shy away from a commitment to the sanctity of human life. And this last week his reversal on getting tough on China.”
“In each of these cases Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years,” he added. “And that’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.”
Though dissatisfied with Trump, Pence suggests he is likely eyeing a third-party candidate to support in the election because he “would never vote for Joe Biden.”
