Former Vice President Mike Pence went after former President Donald Trump during his presidential campaign launch Wednesday, marking his strongest criticisms of his former boss to date.
Pence accused Trump of turning his back on the Constitution and conservative values and policy, as he formally declared his candidacy in Ankeny, Iowa — the state that leads off the Republican presidential nominating calendar.
“I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be President of the United States and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the constitution should never be President of the United States again,” Pence said of his former two-time running mate. Trump had urged Pence to reject the 2020 presidential election results as he presided over the certification of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence charged that “when Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 he promised to govern as a conservative. And together we did just that. Today he makes no such promise.”
Pence joins a growing field of Republican White House contenders that’s currently dominated by Trump. And he’s making history. Since the late Vice President John Nance Garner unsuccessfully challenged then-President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 election, no a candidate has campaigned for president against a former running mate.
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“As your vice president, I was proud to stand by President Donald Trump every single day when we made America great,” Pence said to a crowd of friends, supporters, and Iowa voters interested to hear what he had to say, who were gathered at Des Moines Area Community College.
Pointing to his rivals for the nomination, Pence said “while some in this contest have already taken to criticizing the record of the Trump-Pence administration, let me be clear, I am incredibly proud of our record and everything we accomplished for the American people.
But the former vice president, who contrasts himself with the controversial former president in terms of tone and tenor, said that “elections are about the future. Different times call for different leaders.”
Pence enters the 2024 race polling the mid-single digits, far behind Trump and also significantly trailing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who trails Trump by double-digits but is firmly in second place, ahead of the former vice president and the rest of the field of actual and likely candidates.
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“I’m very confident that we’ll have the support to be able to carry our message, tell our story, which is not just my years as vice president but also years as governor of a conservative state leading a conservative agenda, record employment, as also being a conservative leader in the Congress of the United States, fighting against the big spenders in my own party,” Pence emphasized in a Fox News interview this past weekend.
Neither Trump nor his campaign – by the time this story was published on Wednesday – had commented on Pence’s entry into the 2024 field.
Pence pledged that “we’ll have the resources to tell our story and my hope is, should we enter the race, that by the time people are making decision, we won’t just be well known, we’ll be known well. They’ll know who the Pences are. They’ll know what our values are, our sense of calling, and I’m confident we can do that.”
Pence, who turned 64 on Wednesday, was Indiana governor when Trump named him his running mate in 2016. For four years, Pence served as the loyal vice president to Trump.
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However, everything changed on Jan. 6, 2021, as right-wing extremists — including some chanting “hang Mike Pence” — stormed the U.S. Capitol aiming to upend congressional certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory that was overseen by Pence.
In the more than two years since the end of the Trump administration, the former president and vice president have drifted farther apart. Pence has rebuked his former boss, calling him out by name while discussing Trump’s claim that Pence could have overturned the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Pence has described the deadly attack on the Capitol as “tragic” and that “it dishonored the millions of people who had supported our cause around the country.” He has emphasized that he did “the right thing” and performed his “duty under the Constitution.” He has also noted a number of times that he and Trump may never “see eye to eye on that day.”
Hardcore Trump loyalists will likely never forgive Pence, whom they view as a traitor for refusing to reject the 2020 election results.
In his most detailed comments about January 6, Pence said in his address on Wednesday that “given my support for our record, it might be fair to ask why I am challenging my former running mate for the Republican nomination for president,” Pence said.
“It begins with a promise I made to the American people and to almighty god… and ends with a two different visions for the future of our party and the country,” he said.
“The former president continues to insist that I had the right to overturn the election. President Trump was wrong then and he is wrong now. I will always believe, by Gods grace, I did my duty on that day, I kept my oath, to ensure the peaceful transfer of power under the constitution and the laws of this country.”
And he emphasized that the American people deserve to know on that fateful day, “President Trump also demanded I choose between him and our Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution and I always will,” he said to applause from the audience.
Pence went on to criticize Trump over his stance on the war in Ukraine, entitlements, and abortion.
“After leading the most pro-life administration in American history, Donald Trump and others in this race are retreating from the cause of the unborn. The sanctity of life has been our party’s calling for half a century – long before Donald Trump was ever a part of it. Now he treats it as an inconvenience, even blames our election losses in 2022 on overturning Roe v. Wade,” Pence charged.
Taking aim repeatedly at the current president, Pence argued that “this country’s in a lot of trouble. Joe Biden and the radical left have weakened America at home and abroad… in many ways our country has grown barely recognizable in just a few short years. There are crises everywhere.”
He said “the first step to turning the country around is ending this disastrous presidency, so here in Iowa we must resolve that Joe Biden will never be re-elected as President of the United States.”
But Pence pivoted to put the focus back on Trump.
“I know we can beat Joe Biden, but we must resist the politics of personality and silent song of populism unmoored from conservative principles. And we must stand firm on a traditional Republican agenda of a strong national defense, fiscal responsibility, and traditional values that have led us to victory in the past and will lead us to victory again.”
Pence’s message resonated with many in the crowd.
“I love the integrity of that man. I think he’s honest. I love that God is part of his life. I love that” Darcy from Ames, Iowa told Fox News. “He’s definitely one that I’m really considering.”
Erin Leonard, an undecided voter from Windsor Heights, Iowa, said “I’ve been a huge Mike Pence fan forever. I think he’s a good, honest, man.”
Leonard said she wants “to know what sets him apart. What makes him the best choice for us, especially here in Iowa.”
Matt Haynie, an Army veteran from Boone County, Iowa who also hasn’t made up his mind on whom to support in Iowa’s presidential caucuses, told Fox News Pence “is a man of integrity, at least that’s what he says. I think he lives it. I hope. I just want to hear what he has to say.”
“As a veteran it’s kind of hard to vote for someone who doesn’t have a backbone,” he added.
Pence campaigns in Iowa on Thursday before heading Friday to New Hampshire, which holds the first primary and second overal contest in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.