In a jaw-dropping repudiation of his former running mate, ex-Vice President Mike Pence delivered a stinging rebuke of Donald Trump on Friday, declaring in no uncertain terms that he “cannot in good conscience” endorse the 2024 presidential bid of the very man who once boosted him to the nation’s second-highest office.
The extraordinary rejection from one of Trump’s most steadfast allies lends powerful symbolic heft to the substantial clube of Republican defectors vowing to abandon the GOP standard bearer. And it exposes the former president’s struggles to unite the party he remade in his own image behind what would be a historic third quest for the White House.
It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” a steely Pence told Fox News, his voice a mixture of resolve and melancholy.
When pressed on whether he would simply sit out the election entirely and avoid voting for either Trump or incumbent President Joe Biden, the typically circumspect Pence offered a clarifying and unequivocal response: “I would never vote for Joe Biden.
The comments culminate years of circuitous disagrement between the two men dating back to the frantic hours of Jan. 6, 2021, when Pence rejected Trump’s demands to illegally reject the legitimate results of the 2020 election. The former VP was holed up in a secretive location as a pro-Trump mob swarmed the U.S. Capitol, with some rioters menacingly chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”
Trump’s campaign did not immediately weigh in on the bombshell remarks, which had been widely speculated but nevertheless landed like a shock across the Republican political ecosystem. Behind the scenes, sources say advisers are scrambling to chart a course forward in light of Pence’s defection.
In a lengthy statement released later Friday, Pence elaborated on his “profound differences” with the party’s presumptive nominee, bemoaning Trump’s recent rightward lurches on hot-button issues like entitlement reform, abortion and confronting China’s aggression.
“Sadly, over the past few years, I have seen the former president turn away from our conservative agenda and the principles that drew me to his cause at first,” the statement read. “Donald Trump is tacking away from the very ideals I stood beside him to uphold.”
The rupture between the two men has been a slow burn exacerbated by a single flashpoint – Trump’s behavior surrounding the Jan. 6 chaos, which Pence has excruciatingly detailed in interviews, speeches and his recent memoir. The former VP said the attack on American democracy marked an “egregious” violation of Trump’s oath of office.
Yet the public airing of Pence’s decision not to back Trump’s campaign represents a new low point in their ever-deteriorating relationship. The prospect of the former VP’s endorsement had been hotly debated for months within Republican circles amid scant evidence he’d re-embrace his ex-boss amidst such a bitter divide.
Why Pence has finally drawn such a hardline in the sand, even as other erstwhile Trump World figures like Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley work to get back into the president’s good graces, remains somewhat opaque. Some longtime Pence associates see his stance as positioning for a potential 2028 run of his own.
Others say the evangelical Christian simply cannot square Trump’s norm-shattering behavior – from his slew of legal entanglements to his caustic personal attacks – with his own faith and principles.
There is consensus, however, that Pence’s disavowal amounts to a significant symbolic victory for the fervent anti-Trump Republican faction that has struggled mightily to gain traction against the populist firebrand, even amid his mounting legal liabilities. It offers a credible counterweight to Trump’s claims of complete party unity.
How potent a political threat Pence’s rebuke poses is far from clear. He failed to gain any meaningful traction during his own 2024 campaign before dropping out last fall amid horrific polling. And for every Pence, there are handfuls of once-critical Trump allies like Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz who have enthusiastically re-endorsed their former foil.
Still, the audacity of watching the former VP bluntly and unambiguously renounce Trump on national television marks a surreal closing chapter in one of America’s most tumultuous modern political partnerships.
The man once extolled for his loyalty to Trump as the former president’s “wonderful friend” is now among his biggest public detractors. For all the sound and fury of the disruptive Trump era, Mike Pence’s stern defection might just stand as one of its most jolting final impressions of disunity.
