Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Friday that he would not endorse former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
The comments came less than a week after Trump surpassed the requisite threshold of delegates — 1,215 — to secure the Republican presidential nomination, paving the way to a 2020 rematch against President Joe Biden in the general election.
“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence said on Fox News after anchor Martha MacCallum asked Pence if he would be backing Trump.
Mike Pence says he will not endorse Donald Trump for president pic.twitter.com/GHS6pMdFX2
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Pence served as vice president for four years under Trump. They ran together in 2020 seeking a second term but were defeated by Biden.
This election cycle, Pence ran for the White House and in August said he would sign the Republican National Committee’s loyalty pledge vowing to support the GOP’s eventual presidential nominee. Pence suspended his campaign in October after failing to gain much traction in a wide GOP field.
Pence told Fox News that he is “incredibly proud” of the Trump administration’s “conservative” record. However, he explained that a number of issues were creating a break between him and Trump, including Pence’s refusal to try to stop the certification of the 2020 election results.
“During my presidential campaign, I made it clear there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues. And not just our difference on my constitutional duties that I exercised on January the 6th,” he said.
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He added, “As I have watched his candidacy unfold, I’ve seen him walking away from our commitment to confronting the national debt. 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 and supporting our administration’s effort to force a sale of ByteDance’s TikTok application.”
Pence, whose group Advancing American Freedom unveiled a $20 million endeavor last month to defend conservative principles, said that Trump’s latest campaign is a departure from what they tried to accomplish together.
“Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. That’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign,” he said.
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