Mike Pence, a former US vice president, declared his candidacy for president on Wednesday, portraying the Republican primary as a contest between “reckless” Donald Trump and the law, contending that Trump’s attempt to rig the 2016 election should prevent him from running again in 2024.
The profoundly devout former radio talk show presenter and Indiana governor gave a passionate defense of the Trump White House’s policies, saying he was glad to support his running mate “every single day” of the 2017–21 administration.
But on January 6, 2021, when Pence was inside the Capitol supervising the official declaration of Joe Biden’s victory, the then-president incited a throng to attack the building.
“As I’ve said many times, on that fateful day, president Trump’s words were reckless and endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol,” Pence told supporters in Ankeny, Iowa.
“The American people deserve to know that on that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution and I always will.”
Pence developed a reputation as a steadfastly devoted vice president who stood by Trump over his four scandal-riddled years in office and pulled the religious right into the fold.
The evangelical Christian, however, alienated Trump’s rabid supporters and the populist firebrand himself by refusing to go along with the president’s demands and use his position as the Senate’s president to destroy the 2020 election.
When a crowd that Trump had ordered to march on the Capitol broke through barricades and demanded the vice president’s execution, Pence was forced to leave for his life.
Pence, who asserted in a launch video earlier on Wednesday that “God is not done with America yet,” is the first vice president in modern times to oppose his former running partner for the party’s nomination.
His declaration highlighted the precarious position he would find himself in as he tries to distance himself from the volatility of the Trump administration while still claiming credit for the improvements he thinks the nation made.
Pence criticized Trump for abandoning conservative values including strict abortion restrictions and budgetary restraint, and charged that he had broken a vow made “on day one” to lead the country with “decency and civility.”
In response to a question regarding media claims that Trump’s attorneys had been alerted that their client was the subject of an investigation into the improper handling of secret documents after he left the White House, Pence said during a CNN town hall that “no one’s above the law.”
“I would just hope there would be a way for them to move forward without the dramatic and drastic and divisive step of indicting a former president of the United States,” he added.
A day after former New Jersey governor Chris Christie entered the race, Pence, who was celebrating his 64th birthday, launched his candidacy. Christie promised to be the only contender who would be unafraid to take on Trump, who is still the leading Republican figure in much of the country.
Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, and Nikki Haley and Asa Hutchinson, both former governors, are also running.
According to polls, Trump is by far the early front-runner, frequently maintaining advantages of over 30 points over DeSantis, who is currently in second place. None of the other contenders, including Pence, are scoring in the double digits.
DeSantis visited southern Arizona on Wednesday, where he promoted his hardline immigration stance and justified his state’s recent decision to transport hundreds of refugees, primarily from Venezuela, to California on charter flights from Texas.
Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, threatened DeSantis with abduction charges for the taxpayer-funded operation after officials said the migrants had been tricked into boarding the planes with false promises of jobs. Newsom referred to DeSantis as a “small, pathetic man” and called him a “pathetic man.”
DeSantis responded by criticizing “sanctuary” cities and states, like California, and called for the border to be “shut down” at a round-table discussion in Sierra Vista with law enforcement officials from Florida, Arizona, and Texas.
“That’s the policies that they’ve (staked) out,” DeSantis said, criticizing California’s more relaxed approach to immigration control.
“And then what? When they have to deal with some of the fruits of that, they all of a sudden become very, very upset about that.”