Pence Announces Donald Trump Endorsement Decision

Former Vice President Mike Pence announced on Friday that he will not endorse his former boss Donald Trump for president again, citing his conscience as the reason.

Pence, who withdrew his own bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in October, told Fox News host Martha MacCallum, “It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year.

“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,” he said.

“But that being said, during my presidential campaign, I made it clear that there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues,” Pence said.

He explained that these differences go beyond his decision not to support Trump’s push to delay certifying the 2020 election results.

Trump believed Pence had the authority, in his role as president of the Senate, to not certify the Electoral College so that claims of election fraud in some swing states — like Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan — could be further investigated by state legislatures.

Pence disagreed, and the two parted ways after leaving office in January 2021.

The vice president told MacCallum that he currently has policy disagreements with Trump, including what he characterized as an unwillingness to confront the growing national debt, as well as the 45th president’s stance on protecting the lives of the unborn.

At a Fox News town hall last month, Trump said that he hasn’t decided yet at what point in the pregnancy he could support a prohibition on abortions.

Trump also pointed out, “We got it back to the states where it belongs. A lot of states are taking very strong stances,” referring to state laws passed after the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022.

At the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, in February, Trump highlighted his pro-life record.

“From my first day in office, I took historic action to protect the unborn, like nobody has ever done,” he said. “I was able to bring this issue for the first time in 54 years back to the states where everybody agrees, on both sides … that’s where it should be.”

Trump argued that Republicans need to make the case that Democrats are the radicals when it comes to abortion policy, particularly with their support for late-term abortion.

“Because nobody believes after a certain period of time, nobody believes that you should be doing this,” he said.

“We also have to remember that we have to have people elected, so some things that you feel, and you have to go with your heart … but you have to get elected, you have to get people elected,” Trump contended, in an apparent nod to the red wave that materialized in the 2022 midterms after the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling.

Pence stated that on some of these key issues, Trump “is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years.

“And that’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign,” he said.

When asked who he would be voting for, Pence responded that he wanted to keep his vote private but did offer that he would never vote for Biden.

Asked if he would be running as a third-party candidate, the former vice president answered, “I am a Republican.”