Former Vice President Mike Pence’s recent book tour has been filled with hints that Pence is planning to challenge former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential campaign.
On Monday, Pence admitted he was eyeing a run — and he fired shots at Trump, too.
“In terms of our role [in the Republican Party], I can tell you we are going to give prayerful consideration to what role we might play in the months and years ahead as we gather over the Christmas holidays,” Pence said in an interview with Breitbart News.
“But whether I’m a candidate for president or whether I’m championing another candidate I promise you I’ll never stop fighting for the conservative policies and values that have defined my public life since the very start,” he said.
Pence said he had faith that Republican Party primary voters would choose one of the “better options” over Trump, but didn’t rule out potentially backing the former president if Trump won.
“I believe there will be better options,” Pence said. “I believe there will be better choices. I have great confidence in Republican primary voters.”
“As I said, nobody could have defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 other than Donald Trump,” he told Breitbart. “Republican primary voters knew what we needed in a standard-bearer in that election.”
“I have every confidence that Republican primary voters will sort out who would best be our standard-bearer for the 2024 election,” Pence said. “I’ll leave that to them and we’ll reflect deeply on what role we might play.”
Earlier in the interview, Pence congratulated Republican voters on winning back control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm election.
“A win is a win. I was in Congress the last time that we defeated a Democrat majority led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the day that Pelosi hands the gavel to Speaker Kevin McCarthy is going to be a great day for America and an opportunity for us to start our way back to the policies that the Trump-Pence administration proved make our country secure and prosperous and ensures the vitality of our liberties,” Pence said.
“I welcome that, and I celebrate the election of a Republican majority in the House of Representatives without qualification,” he said.
But Pence also admitted he was slightly disappointed that Republicans failed to retake the U.S. Senate — and blamed Trump for the loss.
“That said, like most Republicans, I was hoping for more,” Pence said. “I traveled to 35 states over the last year and a half campaigning for as many House members as I did candidates for governor and for Senate. I was hoping to see more.”
“But I do think there is an underlying message at a time when so many Americans are hurting with record inflation, gas prices through the roof, a crisis at the southern border, and a crime wave in our cities,” he said. “I look around the election results and the candidates for House, Senate, and governor that were focused on the challenges the American people are facing today and solutions for the future did quite well.”
Pence hinted that Trump loyalists were a drag on the party because of their focus on the former president’s 2020 election grievances.
“But, it appears as though candidates who were focused on the past did not do quite as well,” Pence said. “I remember being in, the night before the primary, in Georgia that in some respects was contested along these fault lines itself when I was campaigning for Gov. Brian Kemp and I said then that the Republican Party must be the party of the future.”
“Gov. Kemp would go on to win overwhelmingly renomination and then he defeated the most formidable candidate in the country and won a strong reelection as the governor of Georgia.”
“I really think the takeaway for Republicans, especially those in the new Republican majority, is we need to be focused on what people are dealing with today and the hardships they’re facing today and we need to bring our country back to the prosperity and security we experienced under the Trump-Pence administration,” Pence said.
The Horn editorial team