December 14, 2023: Marc Short, once the chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, said Thursday that Pence isn’t likely to endorse former President Trump for the 2024 election. (The Hill)
“I don’t think President Trump should be holding his breath for that,” Short said of an endorsement, in an appearance on “The Hill” on NewsNation. “I certainly would not anticipate any endorsement of him anytime soon.”
Short, who remains a close ally of Pence, has consistently criticized Trump over his handling of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, as Pence has.
He said the issue is “more than personal” for Pence, who had been at the receiving end of harsh criticism from his former running mate since the pare left the White House in 2021.
Short pointed specifically to Trump’s demands for Pence to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Your oath to the Constitution is one of your most sacred oaths to take,” he said. “If you violate that oath, and you call on your vice president to violate that oath — I think that’s a pretty fundamental difference.”
Pence has shied away from the limelight sine suspending his 2024 presidential campaign in October.
On the campaign trail, he criticized Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen and his requests for Pence to overturn the results…
May 15, 2023: A new super PAC backing Mike Pence as a 2024 presidential candidate launched Monday, marking a significant step as the former vice president weighs whether to enter the GOP primary in the coming weeks. (The Hill)
Committed to America announced its leadership, which includes former Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and veteran GOP consultant Scott Reed as national co-chairs.
“Mike Pence is the conservative leader our nation needs at this critical time,” Hensarling said in a statement. “From chairing the House Republican Conference, to leading the state of Indiana, to serving as vice president, Mike has consistently demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to conservative principles and the Constitution. Mike can win, he is ready to lead, and I am proud to help lead the effort that will send him to the White House.”
The executive director of the group will be Bobby Saparow, who managed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) reelection campaign in 2022, when Kemp defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams by a wider margin than he did in 2018…
…The pro-Pence super PAC will launch with offices in Dallas and Iowa, the group said, with additional hiring announcements expected in the coming days.
The launch of Committed to America is one of the clearest signs to date that Pence is likely to enter the 2024 presidential race…
May 31, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence is likely to announce next week that he is running for president in 2024, according to a source familiar with the plans. (The Hill)
The source said Pence’s team is finalizing plans to launch his campaign for the White House, joining the expanding GOP primary field with a forward-looking video announcement and speech that makes the case for his candidacy.
The former vice president is expected to put much of his focus on Iowa, which hosts the first caucus on the GOP primary calendar.
Pence is scheduled to participate in a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa June 7 – an event that was billed in one release as a “Presidential Town Hall.” Pence will celebrate his 64th birthday the same day.
NBC News and CNN reported that Pence will make his campaign official on June 7…
…For Pence to win the nomination, he will have to overtake Trump, his old running mate. Pence was unflinchingly loyal to Trump throughout their four years in office together, defending the former president through myriad controversies…
May 31, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence is set to launch his run for the White House against his old boss, former President Donald Trump, within the the coming two weeks, four sources familiar with the planning told The Messenger.
The Georgia Republican Party may have tipped Pence’s hand Wednesday in an email explaining he could not longer deliver the keynote address at a June 9th even. Pence would make “an announcement regarding his future plans” at a televised town hall, the email said. The Georgia GOP did not specify which town hall, but Pence is scheduled to headline a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa on June 7, his 64th birthday.
Four Republicans familiar with the plans say Pence and his team started ramping up their outreach two weeks ago, telling supporters that the launch was imminent and would take place in mid-June…
…The launch marks a historic run by the two men at the center, yet opposite sides, of the January 6 insurrection. The former vice president, who rioters came within 40 feet of confronting in the Capitol that day as other Trump faithfuls chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” has been reticent to comment on the attack in public, yet has been cooperating to various degrees with investigators probing Trump’s responsibility for the attack…
June 7, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence formally launched his 2024 presidential campaign Wednesday, releasing a video that made the broad case for his candidacy amid an increasingly crowded Republican primary field. (The Hill)
In a nearly three-minute video, titled “Best Days,” Pence made no direct mention of former President Trump, nor is the former president featured on screen.
Instead, the former vice president narrates a video that offers a brief personal history of his family and government service and argues that the country should turn the page on President Biden without returning to Trump…
…Wednesday’s video launch comes two days after Pence officially filed paperwork to run for president in 2024. The former vice president is set to hold an event in Iowa on Wednesday afternoon, followed in the evening by a CNN town hall event in Des Moines….
…Ultimately, though, it remains to be seen whether the is an appetite among GOP primary voters for a Pence candidacy. A section of primary voters who still back Trump view Pence as a traitor because he did not reject the 2020 election results when he oversaw Congress’ official electoral count as vice president and instead insisted on abiding by the Constitution. And those looking for an alternative may be more drawn to candidates like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis…
June 7, 2023: Mike Pence, who as Donald Trump’s vice-president narrowly escaped harm at the hands of the January 6 rioters, launched his run for the Republican presidential nomination next year, pitting him against his former boss. (The Guardian)
Pence filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday afternoon and released his official campaign launch video early on Wednesday. His formal launch event was planned to take place in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday – his 64th birthday.
He posted the video on Twitter on Wednesday, writing: “I believe in the American people, and I have faith God is not done with American yet. Together, we can bring this Country back and the best days for the Greatest Nation on Earth are yet to come.”…
…He attacked the Democratic administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, showing clips of the president and vice president and warning about the “radical left” that “recession is looming,” the US-Mexico border is “under siege” and “the American dream is being crushed under runaway inflation,” lamenting a “weakened America” at home and abroad.
The former congressman and Indiana governor, an evangelical conservative, enters a primary dominated by Trump, who enjoys commanding polling leads, well clear of his nearest challenger, the rightwing Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
A Pence run has long been expected but he has not registered significantly in polling, generally contesting third place with the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley…
June 17, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence said he does not know why other 2024 Republican presidential candidates “presume” former President Trump will be found guilty of the charges he is facing. (The Hill)
Pence said in an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press,”… that discussing whether to pardon Trump for the charges he is facing is “premature,” as the legal proceedings have not yet played out.
“Let me say first and foremost, I don’t know why some of my competitors in the Republican primary presume the president will be found guilty,” he said. “Look, all we know is what the president has been accused of in his indictment. We don’t know what his defense is. We don’t know if this will even go to trial. It could be subject to a motion to dismiss. We don’t know what the verdict will be of the jury.”…
…Todd pressed Pence on whether he would pardon Trump now if he was in President Biden’s position.
“I just think this whole matter is incredibly divisive for the country. And look, I just think at the end of the day, it is saddening to me that we are now in this moment,” Pence responded.
Pence said before the indictment was issues that he hoped the Justice Department would not move forward as it would divide the country, but said after it was unsealed that the allegations against Trump are “very serious” and he “can’t defend” what is alleged.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts filed against him in the classified and sensitive documents probe Tuesday.
June 17, 2023: Former Vice President and 2024 candidate Mike Pence said he would “clean house” in federal law enforcement if he was elected president.
“The American people have lost confidence in the Department of Justice. And if I’m president of the United States on day one, we’re going to clean house from the top floor of the Department of Justice and bring in a whole new group of people, Pence told The New York Post.
Alongside a wave of new hires at the Justice Department, Pence said the first person he would fire would be FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Pence has previously questioned Justice Department investigations into former President Trump and said that discussions on whether Trump should be pardoned are “premature.”
“The President is entitled to his day in court, he’s entitled to bring a defense, and I want to reserve judgement until he has the opportunity to respond,” he told The Wall Street Journal this week…
…Pence also signaled that his relationship with Trump may have faltered since they both left office, telling The New York Post that Trump “was” his friend. Pence faced criticism of the former president’s supporters after he refused to stop the certification of the election during the Jan. 6 insurrection in 2021.
July 14, 2023: Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson aggressively pressed former Vice President Mike Pence Friday about how he’d characterize the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob invaded the Capitol, forced the evacuation of lawmakers and interrupted the counting of electoral votes in the 2020 election. (The Hill)
The questioning by Carlson, who described the events if Jan. 6 as “mostly peaceful chaos” while at Fox News, underscored how Pence’s break with former President Trump that day will be a defining feature of his campaign.
Many of Trump’s supporters have never forgiven Pence, who was hanged in effigy that day, for his actions on Jan. 6, and it is a major problem in his quest for the presidency.
Carlson opened his questioning of Pence by asking if the former vice president thought the attack on the Capitol was an “insurrection.”
“All I know for sure having lived through it at the Capitol is that it was a tragic day,” Pence said at a Family Leader event in Des Moines, Iowa. “I’ve never used the word insurrection, Tucker, over the past two years, but it was a riot that took place at the Capitol that day.”
Pence, who was whisked away to safety as rioters stormed the Capitol to try and stop the certification of President Biden’s electoral victory, said he witnessed firsthand the dozens of police officers who were assaulted that day and the “tragic loss of life” that occurred.
Carlson asked Pence who specifically he was referring to when he spoke of the loss of life, and Pence mentioned Ashli Babbitt, a protestor who was shot in the Capitol by law enforcement and whose death has become a rallying point for Trump and other conservatives.
“I just think that was a tragic moment, without question,” Pence said. “But I have to tell you that seeing people assaulting law enforcement officers, smashing windows, breaking into the Capitol building, it infuriated me. And it’s very likely that the restraint that was shown by law enforcement officers saved lives that day”…
July 18, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday he hoped the Justice Department (DOJ) would not pursue charges against Donald Trump for his conduct around the Jan. 6 riots after the former president said he was notified he’s the target of the agency’s investigation into Trump’s attempts to remain in power after the 2020 election. (The Hill)
Pence, who testified before the grand jury in that case, told Elizabeth Vargas on NewsNation that Trump’s words on Jan. 6 were “reckless” and that the former president continues to be wrong in his assertions about 2020 election.
“But with regard to the prospect of an indictment, I hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Pence, who is running against Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. “I’m not convinced that the president acting on the bad advice of a group of crank lawyers that came into the White House in the days before Jan. 6 is actually criminal.”
“And secondly, the truth is that the Department of Justice has lost the confidence the American people. And there’s so many Americans that are deeply concerned about unequal treatment under the law,” Pence continued.
“I don’t know what the letter today means, the notification means, but my hope is that the judgement about the president’s actions on Jan. 6 would be left to the American people,” the former vice president added…
July 22, 2023: An independent voter at a meet-and-greet in New Hampshire on Friday told former Vice President Mike Pence that he was concerned with his place in the polls — and with the fact that Pence is not taking on former President Donald Trump harder as he leads the field for the Republican nomination. (ABC News)
“I would love to see you be president of the United States. I’m just gonna give you an honest comment. I don’t believe you will ever be until the day you stand up to that man,” Tom Loughlin, a 77-year-old who lives part-time in New Hampshire, told Pence in reference to Trump. “Maybe you’re too good a Christian to ever do that.”
“Well, I don’t know about too good a Christian. Some people think we did a fair amount of standing up two and a half years ago,” Pence said, bringing some to applaud.
“I joined the ticket because there was a conservatives and we did, …but honestly, I think he makes no such promise today,” he continued, laying out their differences on foreign policy, entitlement reform, and abortion regulation at the federal level.
“I’m not interested in trading insults with my old friend. I’m not. And some people think that’s the way to win the presidency. I don’t. But laying out the choice for the American people. We’ve been doing it. We’ll keep doing it,” he said.
New Hampshire is one of the smallest states in the nation, with a population of roughly 1.4 million people and just two representatives in the House. But to win the first-in-the-nation primary, candidates usually need to be willing to talk about national concerns, like Pence’s historic actions on Jan. 6, 2021, ahead of the Capitol riot…
…While Pence does not always bring up Jan. 6 at campaign stops, several voters across New Hampshire delivered to him the same message during his three-day-swing in the first-in-the-nation primary state this week: “Thank you for what you did on Jan. 6.”…
…As Pence pitches himself as a conservative, a Christian and a Regan-era Republican, the former vice president is struggling to qualify to make the debate stage. Neither Pence nor his campaign will say how close he is to reaching the 40,000 donors required to make the debate stage…
July 31, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) are boasting their support for national abortion bans as fellow GOP presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spars with anti-abortion activists. (The Hill)
The Susan B. Anthony List, a conservative anti-abortion organization, took aim at DeSantis on Monday for his position on abortion and sidestepping of whether or not he would support a federal ban on abortion. The DeSantis campaign later labeled the organization as a Washington, D.C., interest group, saying its attack on DeSantis was an example of “political games.”
Pence and Scott, both GOP presidential candidates, took the chance Monday to reaffirm their stances on abortion as DeSantis pushed back on the Susan B. Anthony List. Pence, sharing a link to the organization’s statement about the Florida governor, said that he will be a “champion” of the anti-abortion movement if elected to the White House…
“When I am President #PRoLife Americans will have a champion in the White House! In the Dobbs decision, the question of abortion was returned to the states AND the American people,” Pence posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I will always champion protections for the unborn in states across the Country and in our nation’s Capital!”
“Republicans should not be retreating on life. We need a national 15-week limit to stop blue states from pushing abortion on demand,” Scott posted on X. “@sbaprolife defends the most fundamental right: life. Without life, nothing else matters. It’s not a special interest. It’s the only interest.”
August 3, 2023: 2024 GOP presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence said his campaign received more than 7,400 donations since the release of former President Trump’s most recent indictment, according to a Pence adviser. (The Hill)
Pence’s former running mate faces four counts in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump’s pressure campaign to get Pence to overturn the election during its certification in Congress, which resulted in threats of violence and death against the former vice president, was directly mentioned in the indictment…
…In a statement responding to the indictment on Tuesday and obtained by The Hill, Pence said the former president’s legal woes distracted from President Biden’s “disastrous economic policies.”
“I will have more to say about the government’s case after reviewing the indictment,” the statement read. “The former president is entitled to the presumption of innocence but with this indictment, his candidacy means more talk about January 6th and more distractions.”
August 7, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence has qualified to make the stage at the first Republican primary debate, his campaign confirmed Monday night. (The Hill)
Pence’s campaign surpassed the 40,000 individual donors require by the Republican National Committee (RNC) to make the debate stage. The former vice president had previously met the polling requirement, which stipulated that candidates be polling at a minimum of 1 percent in a combination of national polls or early primary state polls.
The first debate will be hosted by Fox News on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee, Wis.
Pence joins several other candidates who have qualified for the event: Former President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott (S.C), former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Trump has indicated he may skip the debate, however, citing his large lead in the polls…
September 13, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence responded to remarks made by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) that cast doubt on Pence’s viability in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, saying Wednesday, “I’m running to win.” (The Hill)
Romney, who announced earlier in the day that he would not be seeking reelection in the Beehive State, told The Washington Post in an interview ahead of his announcement that “I don’t think [Pence] has… any delusions that he’s going to become the nominee.”
“I think he’s running for other reasons. One, to repair his legacy … What he’s saying is important to be said… I’m glad he’s running and saying those things. I respect that.” Romney added.
But Pence disputed that sentiment during a NewsNation town hall with anchor Leland Vittert. NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.
“I’m running for president of the United States because I think this country’s in a lot of trouble,” Pence said when asked about Romney’s comments. “And I’m running to win.”…
…Like other 2024 GOP contenders, the former vice president struggled to close the gap against former President Trump in the polls. Trump has remained the clear front-runner in the race, despite mounting legal challenges.
September 13, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday defended his opposition to surgical and chemical gender transition procedures and gender-affirming policies being taught in schools during an emotional exchange with an audience member at a town hall in Iowa. (The Hill)
During a NewsNation town hall, a prospective Iowa caucus-goer named Melissa told Pence they were a member of the LGBTQ community and have transgender individuals in their family. Melissa cited the wave of anti-LGBTQ bills being passed the state level and asked Pence through tears what he would do to protect the transgender community from “historically high levels of violence.”
Pence said he was “moved” by the questioner’s emotion, and he vowed to protect the rights of every American if elected.
“I hope you will also hear my heart on this. For me, what adults do in their lives, decisions that they make, including transgender adults, is one thing. But for kids under the age of 18 – there’s a reason why we don’t let you drive until you’re 16,” Pence said.
“And I hope you hear in my strong sentiment on this – the gender ideology that’s being taught and has been taught in elementary schools and promoted among many of our kids, and when it comes to surgical or chemical procedures, I really believe we’ve got to protect our kids from decisions that will affect them for the balance of their lives,” he continued.
Melissa responded that they are a social worker and have worked with kids in their profession for years. Melissa said they started an organization for LGBTQ youth in their hometown.
“I have worked with kids as young as 5 years old that have gender nonconforming and identities that are transgender, and I’ve raised one,” they said. “And to hear somebody tell me that it’s not OK for young children to make decisions about their gender identity and to ask school officials for support, protection, and help is appalling.”…
October 28, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence announced Saturday that he is suspending his 2024 campaign for the White House. (The Hill)
“It’s become clear to me it’s not my time,” Pence said during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition Conference. “I’ve decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today.”
“To the American people, I say: this is not my time, but it is still your time,” he added.
The former Indiana governor said that while he’s leaving the campaign trail, he will “never stop fighting to elect principled Republican leaders to every office in the land.”…
January 16, 2024: Former Vice President Mike Pence attacked Trump as a matter of necessity, given his pivotal decision to certify the results of the 2020 election against Trump’s wishes. But he was never able to successfully step out from the shadow of Trump, his onetime running mate with whom he has severed ties. (Vox)…
…Pence’s decision to drop out before the first primaries seems to be a bid to preserve his capital as a leader in the conservative movement, and an acknowledgement that his platform was out of step with his party at large. His candidacy tried to appeal to religious conservatives’ views on abortion, religious liberty, and education. Though the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade dampened GOP gains in the midterms, Pence, a prominent evangelical Christian, only doubled down on his anti-abortion rhetoric. He has called for a national abortion ban and has thrown his weight behind a proposal by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and a ban on abortion pills…