Former Vice President Mike Pence has declined to endorse his onetime running mate, former President Trump, in a bombshell announcement Friday.
Pence, whose relationship soured with Trump after the January 6 riots wherein the president faulted him for refusing to send disputed electoral slates back to state legislatures in his then-role as president of the Senate, said his announcement, however, should not come as a shock.
"It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year," Pence said on "The Story."
"I'm incredibly proud of the record of our administration. It was a conservative record that made America more prosperous, more secure and saw conservatives appointed to our courts in a more peaceful world."
Pence recounted how his presidential bid laid out the differences between himself and his former boss, and repeated his contention he did not have the right under the Electoral Count Act of 1887 – as Trump and some proponents claimed – to send disputed elector slates back to state legislators.
"[We have] our differences on my constitutional duties that I exercised on January 6 [2021]," he said.
Pence said Trump’s 2024 campaign portrays him as shirking the conservative commitment to reducing the national debt and the "sanctity of human life."
He added that Trump’s latest comments about China and opposing a ban to TikTok in the U.S. also depict a reversal of his strong opposition while president to the Chinese-controlled social media app.
"Last week [was] his reversal on getting tough on China, and supporting our administration's effort to force a sale of ByteDance [and] TikTok," he said.
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Trump said Monday that the Gallagher-Krishnamoorthi TikTok bill some have described as a "ban" would only empower Facebook parent company Meta, which he has warred with over allegations it censors conservatives and antiestablishment thought.
"I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people," Trump told CNBC as part of his TikTok commentary.
When asked on "The Story" why Trump appeared to have a change of heart on TikTok, Pence said he couldn’t speculate on it specifically. He reiterated that he finds Trump to be pursuing a platform "at odds with the conservative agenda" the two men governed on for four years.
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A Politico report, however, cited Trump recently rekindled a previously terse relationship with the conservative Club for Growth, and noted one of its top contributors, Jeffrey Yass, the richest man in Pennsylvania, holds a 15% share in ByteDance.
However, Trump said he and Yass did not discuss TikTok but instead school choice when the two crossed paths during a recent donor retreat, according to FOX Business.
On "The Story," Pence said regardless of his own support or lack thereof, Republican voters have made clear Trump is their choice this year.
"What I'm going to spend the rest of this year on is talking about what we should be for. And that is the broad mainstream conservative agenda that's defined our party and always made America strong and prosperous and free," he said.
Pence also appeared to dismiss conjecture of a third-party run given his aversion to Trump’s candidacy, remarking, "I’m a Republican, Martha," to Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum.
Pence also underlined he would not in any scenario vote for President Biden.
"How I vote when that curtain closes – that’ll be for me," he said.
