Former Vice President and 2024 presidential hopeful Mike Pence spoke during his campaign launch event at the FFA Enrichment Center of the Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, Iowa (Picture: Getty Images)
Former Vice President Mike Pence launched his 2024 presidential bid by directly attacking his old boss ex-President Donald Trump.
In his campaign kickoff rally on Wednesday afternoon, Pence accused Trump of going against the US Constitution on the January 6 insurrection and abandoning conservativism.
‘When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he promised to govern as a conservative. Together we did just that,’ said Pence from Akeny, Iowa.
‘Today, he makes no such promise.’
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Republican presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence spoke at his campaign kikcoff event on Wednesday afternoon (Picture: AP)
Pence, who was Trump’s running mate in the 2016 and 2020 elections, announced his presidential run in a video early Wednesday. He made no mention of Trump in it, but came out swinging during his campaign event.
‘President Trump’s words were reckless. They endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol,’ Pence said of the Capitol riot. ‘The American people deserve to know that on that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution.’
Pence raised the exact moment that he began to break away from Trump. Trump asked Pence, who as vice president presided over the counting of the 2020 Electoral College votes, to reject the results reflecting Joe Biden as the winner. Pence refused, and Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building chanting ‘hang Mike Pence’.
‘I chose the Constitution, and I always will. My former running mate continues to insist that I had the right to overturn the election,’ Pence said.
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Republican presidential candidate former Vice President Mike Pence talks with audience members at his campaign launch event (Picture: AP)
‘President Trump was wrong then and he is wrong now.’
Pence added that he over the past few years ‘often prayed’ that Trump ‘would come around and see that he had been misled about my role that day’. Pence confessed that ‘that was not to be’.
‘I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States,’ he said. ‘And anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again.’
Pence marked his 64th birthday with his 2024 launch. He filed his declaration for candidacy for president on Monday with the Federal Election Commission.
Former Vice President Mike Pence announced his presidential campaign the same day that he is set to speak in a CNN town hall (Picture: MSNBC)
Republican presidential candidate former Vice President Mike Pence (second from right) and his wife Karen (right) pose for a photo with audience members at his campaign event (Picture: AP)
He has also distinguished himself from Trump and other candidates vying for the GOP nomination by proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Pence has received better poll numbers than some competitors, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has emerged as the clear second to frontrunner Trump. Trump’s camp has welcomed Pence into the race to possibly detract from DeSantis.
Trump, who has criticizing other 2024 candidates daily, did not immediately comment on Pence’s entrance into the race.
Pence is set to partake in a CNN Republican presidential town hall at 9pm ET on Wednesday at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence launched his 2024 presidential bid with a kickoff rally in Iowa on Wednesday.