Now Donald Trump (67) has another competitor. His former right-hand man Mike Pence, 63, is considering running for office in 2024. Ultimately, the American people must decide whether Trump can run for president again, Pence said Monday in an interview broadcast by ABC TV (local time). But he thinks there will be better alternatives in the future.
Pence said he and his family are considering running for Republicans. And if that meant fighting his former boss Trump, he was ready: “Then it will be.”
Trump is expected to announce a new presidential candidacy on Wednesday evening. Pence is considered by Republicans as a possible contender for Trump in the 2024 election, as is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (44) – the Republicans’ new darling. For the Democrats, President Joe Biden wants to decide early next year whether he wants to run for a second term. He emerged strengthened from last week’s general election after the predicted debacle for Democrats failed to materialize.
More and more Trump supporters are turning away
The ABC interview showed how Trump’s behavior during his supporters’ attack on the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021 led to the vice president’s split from the president.
Trump supporters had stormed the Houses of Parliament while Pence presided over Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 presidential election. Trump had previously inflamed the crowd at a rally near the White House by repeating his false accusations of alleged voter fraud.
Trump had also claimed in the days before that Pence could simply dismiss individual states’ election results — which legal experts and Vice President Pence considered illegal. During the attack, Trump then tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what had to be done”.
Calls were heard in the crowd for Pence to hang. Pence was escorted to his column by bodyguards, but refused to leave the Capitol loading dock, he emphasized. He didn’t want to give the attackers the satisfaction of watching his column drive away. After the attack ended, Congress, under his presidency, completed confirming Biden’s victory.
Pence condemns Trump’s behavior
Trump’s statements and behavior at the time were dangerous, Pence said Monday in an interview broadcast by ABC TV. “It was clear that he decided to be part of the problem.”
He became enraged when he saw the rioters storm the Capitol, Pence said. From the loading dock, he worked with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to organize armed units to protect the Capitol. Pence compared the situation to the response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks: “At that time, there were no Republicans or Democrats, only Americans.” He didn’t hear from Trump that day, and the two didn’t speak again until five days later. (SDA)