Former US Vice President Mike Pence declined on Wednesday to say whether he would vote for former President Donald Trump if he wins the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.
“Sir Pence, if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for president in 2024, will you vote for him?” Pence was asked as he answered questions from students at Georgetown University.
The former vice president paused and smiled faintly.
“Well, there might be someone I prefer,” he said, drawing laughter and applause from the audience.
Pence has been coy about his plans for 2024. He has long been seen as a potential Republican nominee but has not formally declared a candidacy and would almost certainly face strong opposition from Trump, whose supporters he would need in a primary fight.
Under Trump, Pence was loyal in public through the constant controversies that defined the administration, but after the Jan. his former boss, particularly in February, when he publicly denounced Trump’s electoral lies.
“President Trump is wrong,” Pence said at the time, referring to the false claim that Pence, as vice president, had the authority to unilaterally reject Electoral College votes. “I had no right to nullify the election.”
Trump, for his part, said Pence “let him down a lot” the day the electoral votes were certified.
In the midterm season, Trump and Pence occasionally found themselves in a proxy fight, backing opposing candidates in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin. Trump campaigned with a number of candidates who repeated his lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, while Pence tried to shift the GOP’s focus from the 2020 relaunch to traditional conservative policies.
Still, Pence was careful not to steer clear of Trump, who has strongly indicated he intends to run a third presidential campaign.
“You know, what I can say is I have every confidence that the GOP is going to sort out the leadership,” Pence said Wednesday, adding that his focus is on the upcoming midterm elections in November. “But after that, we will be thinking about the future, ours and the nation.”
Concluding his answer on who he would support in 2024, Pence said, “I’ll keep you posted, okay?”
Source: CNN Brasil
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