Trump says Pence WILL NOT be his vice president if he runs in 2024 because they haven’t spoken in a while and he doesn’t think voters will “accept” him.
- Donald Trump has said that if he runs for president again in 2024, he will not add former Vice President Mike Pence to his list.
- The former president said his constituents would no longer “accept” Pence for vice president.
- This comes as Pence continues to distance himself from his former boss.
- Pence expressed interest in running in 2024 and said Trump’s candidacy would not affect whether he continues his bid.
- Trump has not said definitively whether he will run for a third time
Donald Trump has definitively declared that if he runs for president again, he won’t have his former vice president, Mike Pence, according to a report by The Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
“I don’t think people will accept it,” Trump said in an interview late Tuesday, when asked about the potential to run alongside Pence for a third White House bid.
“Mike and I had a great relationship, except for a very important factor that happened at the end. We had a very good relationship,” he added. “I haven’t spoken to him for a long time.
Speaking from Mar-a-Lago, which is both his club and political headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said there had been friction between him and his former number two since the 2020 election.
Trump has consistently blamed Pence for his loss to Joe Biden, arguing that he could have overturned the results of the 2020 presidential election by delaying the January 6, 2021 Electoral College approval of the results.
Former President Donald Trump (left) told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that if he runs for president again in 2024, he will not add former Vice President Mike Pence (right) to the list.
Instead, Pence confirmed the results that day, which was his duty as vice president after the Capitol was stormed by thousands of Trump supporters who objected to the results.
Earlier this year, during a speech to the Society of Federalists, Pence delivered his strongest reproach to Trump, saying he “didn’t have the right” to cancel the election. He also said at a separate event in the summer that he would never meet “one-on-one” with Trump about the Jan. 6 events.
Trump said Pence was acting as a “human assembly line” by sending “rigged votes” to Senate Majority Leader “Old Crow” Mitch McConnell.
“I was disappointed in Mike,” Trump said.
The former president also suggested to the Examiner on Tuesday that his differences with Pence were too serious to overcome for another run on the same ticket.
Pence distanced himself from Trump between the election and his departure from the White House, and for more than a year after Biden’s inauguration.
Trump repeated his claim that the election was stolen and that he wanted Pence to delay certification so the results could be challenged in court and eventually overturned. All court cases related to allegations of fraud in the 2020 election have been dismissed or otherwise dismissed in favor of the former president.
Speaking to the Examiner in a wide-ranging interview in Florida this week, Trump called Pence “a really good person” but said their relationship was broken beyond repair.
Pence is considering running for president in 2024 and, while continuing to distance himself from his former boss, has made it clear that he will not automatically end those ambitions if Trump runs again.
“There is no place in this party for Putin apologists,” he said during a speech to donors at a RNC retreat.
He also said, “We can’t win by fighting yesterday’s battles or by rethinking the past,” an obvious reference to Trump’s repetition of claims that 2020 was stolen by Democrats, whom he claims were duped to get him out of the White House. .
Trump will likely never forgive Pence for hinting at his scheme to send electoral votes from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin back to their respective Republican-controlled legislatures.
The former president believes sympathetic state legislators would reward him with the Electoral College votes he needs to ultimately defeat Biden.
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