In a recent interview with The New York Times, former Vice President Mike Pence said that he has not yet completely ruled out running in the 2024 presidential election primary-whether Trump appears on the scene or not.
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“We’ll go where we’re called”
During the interview, Mike Pence says that he will “go where he’s called”, stating he will turn to prayer on the issue and that that’s the way he and his wife approach issues like this. “We’ll go where we’re called,” Pence said, adding, “That’s the way Karen and I have always approached these things.”
Pence also said that people have expressed their gratitude and appreciation towards him for refusing to get involved with former President Donald Trump in his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential elections. “I have been very moved travelling around the country how much people have made a point to express appreciation, it has been very humbling to me,” Pence said.
Trump says he “wouldn’t be concerned” if Pence ran in 2024
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday seemed unconcerned by the prospect of a face-off with his former running mate in the 2024 presidential elections. When asked if something like this would cause a rift in the Republican party, the ex-president replied saying, “That’s okay if he ran. I mean, I wouldn’t be concerned with that, that’s fine”.
Trump went on to say that he did not believe Mr Pence had said he would run even if the former president mounted a comeback bid and that Republicans are “very disappointed” in the former Vice President for refusing to assist him in overturning the 2020 election results.
“Republican Party is the party of the future” -says Pence
The former vice president has taken massive steps to distance himself from Donald Trump after they fell apart over the events of Jan 6 last year. Pence also endorsed one of the ex-president arch-rivals Brian Kemp, and at a recent campaign, told voters to “look to the future” instead of dwelling in the past.
“Elections are about the future. There are those who want to make this election about the past,” Pence said, speaking in an airport hangar to a crowd of several dozens. “When you say yes to Governor Brian Kemp tomorrow, you will send a deafening message all across America that the Republican Party is the party of the future.” -Pence said.
The then-president and many of his allies had spent days pressuring Mike Pence to reject electoral votes from swing states in favour of Joe Biden as part of a plan to keep them in power for another four years against the wishes of American voters.
But Pence refused, saying in a letter to members of Congress released as he travelled to the Capitol that vesting his office with such authority would be “entirely antithetical” to the designs of the authors of the US Constitution.
“I do not believe that the Founders of our country intended to invest the Vice President with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the Joint Session Congress, and no Vice President in American history has ever asserted such authority,” wrote Pence.
Mike Pence has suffered innumerable jabs from the former president ever since he refused to comply. Pence has stood his ground firmly, reiterating several times that he had no power to overturn the results.
“President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president. Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election.” -Pence said in a statement earlier this year.
