Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday he would not endorse former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, citing “profound” disagreements.
Trump secured enough delegates to clinch the Republican Party’s nomination for president in the 2024 election Tuesday night, making him the presumptive nominee. Pence said that Trump’s policy shifts created “profound differences” between them.
“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence told Fox News host Martha MacCallum. “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. That being said, during my presidential campaign, I made it clear there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues, not just our difference on my constitutional duties that I exercised on January 6th.”
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Pence cited what he viewed as changes of policy on abortion and China as differences.
“Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years,” Pence added. “That’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.”
Trump currently leads President Joe Biden by 1.7% in the RealClearPolitics average of national general election polls for a head-to-head matchup, a lead that grows to 2.7% when independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent candidate Cornel West are included.
“That being said, Republican primary voters have made it clear, Martha, who they’re for in this election,” Pence said. “What I’m going to spend the rest of the year on is talking about what we should be for and that is the broad mainstream conservative agenda that’s defined our party and always made America strong and prosperous and free.”
Harold Hutchison on March 15, 2024
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