On Saturday, former Vice President Mike Pence announced that he had suspended his presidential campaign.
Failing to attract enough anti-Trump Republican primary voters and donors to sustain a candidacy, former Vice President Mike Pence ended his presidential campaign https://t.co/P3N7SMnyEc pic.twitter.com/2L0MVchkDI
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 29, 2023
Unlike other Republican presidential candidates, who endorsed President Trump after they dropped out of the race, Pence, did not endorse his former boss.
During a campaign rally later in the day, President Trump said his former Vice-President should endorse him.
TRUMP ON PENCE: “He should endorse me…because I had a great, successful presidency”
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 29, 2023
From The Hill:
“People are leaving now and they’re all endorsing me,” Trump said at an event in Las Vegas, referring to GOP candidates exiting the 2024 presidential race. “I don’t know about Mike Pence. He should endorse me. You know why? Because I had a great, successful presidency and he was the vice president.”
Pence was Trump’s former running mate for both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns and strongly stood by the former president throughout the majority of his four-year term. However, when Pence refused to help overturn the 2020 election for his former boss, their relationship soured.
“But people in politics can be very disloyal,” Trump continued following his comments about Pence.
Per CNN:
During the GOP primary, Trump lashed out at Pence, calling him “delusional” and “not a very good person.”
“WOW, it’s finally happened! Liddle’ Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side,” Trump said in a Truth Social post in August.
Pence has been critical of the former president over the events surrounding January 6, writing in his memoir that he told Trump directly afterward that he was angry and that what he’d seen that day infuriated him.
He has said that Trump was “wrong” for claiming Pence had the authority to overturn the results of the 2020 election and that “history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
Even though President Trump wants Pence’s endorsement, it is unlikely he will get it considering all that has gone down between them since the 2020 election.
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