The beginning of former Vice President Mike Pence’s 2024 presidential campaign may signal that the growing Republican field is ready to start taking its first tentative shots at former President Donald Trump.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie entered the race the day before with pointed shots at Trump. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has sharpened his criticisms of Trump since formally announcing his own candidacy.
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But Pence served four years as Trump’s understudy in the White House and, in the lead-up to his Wednesday presidential launch, had been relatively restrained in his comments about his former boss despite their break over the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
In a day of campaigning that capped off with a CNN town hall meeting on Wednesday night, Pence put to rest any speculation he would try to paper over those disagreements with Trump in the 2024 Republican primaries.
“The American people deserve to know that on that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution,” Pence said in Iowa, referring to the former president’s insistence his vice president could have thrown out state electors. “Now, voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution, and I always will.”
“President Trump was wrong then, and he’s wrong now,” he added. “Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the U.S. again.”
Those are the most stinging words Pence has ever spoken publicly about Trump, a forthright declaration that his erstwhile boss is unfit for the presidency.
“I have no interest or no intention of pardoning those that assaulted police officers or vandalized our Capitol,” Pence said of Jan. 6 rioters at the CNN event, in contrast with Trump. “They need to be answerable to the law.” He reiterated that he chose the Constitution over Trump and distanced himself from Trump on Ukraine.
Pence was more careful when asked by the network’s Dana Bash about a pardon for Trump himself. Pence said he would not address a “hypothetical,” quipping that he might not be elected president.
Old habits die hard. After a while, Pence seemed uncomfortable with the “persistent as always” Bash’s Trump-related questioning. He took a jab at CNN’s liberal reputation and said they should focus the conversation on what matters to voters. Bash noted that Pence had discussed Trump in his announcement speech.
Going after Trump is a risky strategy in a Republican primary. The only candidate who consistently polls in the double digits against Trump is running as a new and improved version rather than a complete repudiation of his term, though DeSantis has also become more assertive since throwing his hat into the ring. More overtly anti-Trump candidates are polling at the bottom of the field. One survey showed Christie, for example, at 1% nationally as he jumped into the race vowing to be a Trump slayer.
Contenders who complained about Trump’s temperament eight years ago were dispatched or converted into supporters as the former reality TV star blew through a 17-candidate field.
Trump’s legal woes, including the expected conclusion of an investigation into his handling of classified documents on top of a New York indictment, seem to have rallied the Republican base more than reinforce their reservations about him.
CNN teased that the Pence town hall was “minutes away” beneath a chyron about Trump reportedly getting word he was a federal criminal investigation target. Pence was hesitant to weigh in on any charges against Trump, saying he did not know the facts, but criticized the Mar-a-Lago raid and called for “equal treatment under the law.” Pence added that a Trump indictment would be “divisive” and “send a terrible message to the wider world.”
It remains a difficult needle to thread.
Trump has regained a comfortable lead both nationally and in key states, including Florida, according to most polls. This has suggested to some Republicans that there are limits to DeSantis’s more nuanced approach, as the governor may have concluded himself.
Some polls and focus groups do show that Trump can wear on Republicans’ patience, even as he remains the clear front-runner in the race.
For Pence, it is a major reversal. The former vice president reassured evangelical voters and other social conservatives that they could in good conscience support the foul-mouthed New Yorker in 2016 and 2020. Prior to Jan. 6, Pence was a loyal Trump sidekick.
It may also be the case that for Pence, there is no alternative. His relationship with Trump is now defined by their disagreement over certifying President Joe Biden’s victory. That leaves Pence to take his own side of that argument with GOP voters.
Republicans beyond Pence also fear the 2024 election becoming a referendum on Trump rather than Biden. This worked well enough for Democrats in the midterm elections, which is why the freshly reelected DeSantis surged in the immediate aftermath.
In the days after DeSantis declared for president, it appeared as if much of the field was going to go after the runner-up rather than Trump. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley has cast DeSantis as a Trump imitator, as has the ex-president himself.
Now, more Republicans seem to be coming for the top of the field.
“I was very supportive of his policies, and when we disagreed, I never bashed him publicly because he was taking all this incoming from the media, the Left, even some Republicans,” DeSantis said of Trump during his opening campaign swing. “Well now, he’s attacking me over some of these disagreements, but I think he’s doing it in a way that the voters are going to side with me.”
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Incurring Trump’s wrath, not to mention the ire of GOP voters, remains a dangerous game.
Pence’s halting first steps suggest it won’t be easy.
