Trump, the former President of the US, has stated that his Vice declared a presidential run in 2024 without his support.
Mike Pence, a former US Vice President in Trump’s administration, launched his presidential campaign on Wednesday, framing the Republican nomination as a choice between “reckless” Donald Trump and the Constitution, arguing that his former boss’s attempt to overturn the last election should bar him from running again in 2024.
Offering a strong defense of Trump’s policies, the profoundly devout former radio talk show presenter and Indiana governor said he was glad to stand alongside his running mate “every single day”.
Pence earned a reputation as an unwaveringly loyal vice president who stood by Trump during his scandal-plagued four-year presidency and pulled the religious right into the fold.
However, the evangelical Christian’s failure to follow Trump’s advice and use his position as Senate President to damage the 2020 election made him a target. Pence was forced to leave for his life as a mob headed by Trump stormed through barricades and demanded the vice president’s execution.
Pence, who maintained in a launch video earlier Wednesday that “God is not done with America yet,” is the first contemporary vice president to challenge his party’s nominee.
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His announcement highlighted the fine line he will have to walk on the campaign trail as he strives to distance himself from the upheaval of the Trump years while also taking credit for the gains he believes the country has accomplished.
Pence chastised Trump for abandoning conservative policies such as strict abortion restrictions and budgetary prudence, accusing him of breaching a commitment made “on the campaign trail.” When questioned about media allegations that Trump’s lawyers had been alerted that their client was the subject of an investigation into the misuse of secret documents after he left the White House, Pence told a CNN town hall audience that “no one’s above the law.”
“I would just hope that there would be a way for them to move forward without taking the dramatic, drastic, and divisive step of indicting a former president of the United States,” he added.
Pence, 64, declared his presidential run a day after former New Jersey governor Chris Christie joined the race, promising to be the only contender who would not back down from Trump, who remains the dominant Republican figure in much of the country.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also declared his run, as are two former governors, Nikki Haley and Asa Hutchinson who are also running.
Polls consistently show Trump as the overwhelming early frontrunner, with advantages of more than 30 points over second-placed DeSantis. None of the other contenders, including Pence, are in the double digits.
DeSantis visited southern Arizona on Wednesday, where he defended his state’s plan to deport scores of mostly Venezuelan migrants to California on charter flights from Texas in recent days.
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California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, threatened DeSantis with abduction charges, branding him a “small, pathetic man” over the taxpayer-funded operation, after officials said the migrants were duped into boarding the planes with false promises of jobs.
DeSantis countered by criticizing towns and states, including as California, and urged for the border to be “shut down” at a round-table meeting with law enforcement officials from Florida, Arizona, and Texas in Sierra Vista.
“That’s the policies that they’ve staked out,” DeSantis added, blasting California’s more lenient immigration rules. Mike Pence declaration comes two days after he formally entered the race, according to documents filed by the US Federal Election Commission.
While North Dakota’s CEO Doug Burgum is expected to make an announcement today, polls consistently show Trump as the overwhelming early frontrunner, with advantages of more than 30 percent over DeSantis. None of the other candidates are in the double digits.
However, the former president is currently the subject of various criminal investigations into his personal and professional activities, which have already resulted in scores of felony charges in New York.
