Former Vice President Mike Pence has criticized his former boss and provided perhaps the strongest hint yet that he is planning a run for the White House in 2024.
Pence, 63, spoke at the Gridiron Club’s annual dinner in Washington DC on Saturday night alongside Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
“I will wholeheartedly and unreservedly support the Republican nominee for president in 2024. Yes it is me,” said the former Indiana governor.
Pence continued the light-hearted theme, mocking President Joe Biden’s age and adding that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was the “only person in human history to have had a child and all the rest of us suffered from port partum depression.” .
The mood turned somber as Pence began talking about January 6. Pence and Trump have been estranged since the violent takeover of the Capitol by Trump supporters in an attempt to stop congressional certification of Biden’s victory.
At the annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington DC on Saturday, former Vice President Mike Pence sharply criticized former President Donald Trump.
Pence’s comments were the harshest condemnation yet from the once loyal lieutenant who has often avoided confronting his former boss.
In the days leading up to January 6, 2021, Trump lobbied Pence to undo President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Pence joked Saturday that the birth of Pete Buttigieg’s twins triggered postpartum depression in the rest of the country.
‘I wasn’t afraid, I was angry. President Trump was wrong. He had no right to overturn the election and his reckless words, his dangers, my family and everyone on Capitol Hill that day. And I know that history will hold Donald Trump to account.”
Dinner is a Washington tradition. The Gridiron Club was founded in 1885, just after Grover Cleveland’s election. He never attended a dinner, but every president since has attended at least once.
Fifteen journalists formed the club and instituted the formal dinner, which in modern times is held every year in a downtown Washington hotel in a less glitzy, celebrity-studded setting than its more famous cousin, the Washington Correspondents’ Dinner. the White House.
Pence went on to speak about January 6, apparently taking aim at Fox News host Tucker Carlson and others who have tried to portray the events of that day as peaceful and exaggerated by the mainstream media.
“It was not as some would have us believe that the tourists entered the building peacefully,” said the former vice president.
‘Tourists don’t injure 140 policemen… tourists don’t break down doors to get to the House speaker or threaten public officials.’
Pence speaks on the phone from a secure loading dock at the US Capitol while looking at another phone with a recording of President Donald Trump’s video statement on January 6.
Pence looks at a mobile device from a secure charging dock at the US Capitol.
Pence described the events as a “disgrace”.
“Together here, as long as I live, I will never diminish the injuries sustained or the lives lost or the heroism of law enforcement on that tragic day,” he added.
Pence also took the time to joke about Trump’s fragile ego by saying that the former Apprentice host wanted his vice president to sing ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’; one of the lines is ‘did you ever know you’re my hero?’ — During his weekly lunches.
He shot Trump again over classified documents.
“I read that some of those classified documents that they found at Mar-a-Lago were actually trapped in the president’s Bible,” Pence said. Which proves he had no idea they were there.
The conservative then thanked members of the media for continuing to report on the events of January 6.
‘The American people now what happened that day. Because you never stopped before. His work inspired our actions by all elected officials who came together on the same day and turned the date of tragedy into a triumph of freedom,’ he said.
Despite admitting that the media sometimes “mad” him and he “mad” them, Pence said: “I really appreciate what you do to keep us a democracy.”
Thomas Jefferson said that our freedom depends on the freedom of the press. And that cannot be limited without getting lost. Without free press and freedom’, concluded the potential presidential candidate.
Earlier this month, Pence declined to say Thursday whether he would endorse Donald Trump if his former boss were the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
Pence suggested that Trump’s leadership style is not what the party needs in the upcoming White House race.
“I think we’ll have better options,” Pence told The Associated Press in an interview in South Carolina. “I am convinced that no one could have beaten Hillary Clinton in 2016 except Donald Trump, but I believe we live in a different time and it requires different leadership.”
Pence suggested that Trump’s leadership style is not what the party needs in the upcoming White House race.
At the time of those comments, Pence was making his ninth trip to the early voting state since leaving office, he participated in a police roundtable with officials in North Charleston.
Pence said he would make a decision on 2024 “by the spring.” Already in the race are Trump and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. Others who could join them include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
“The American people want us to return to the policies of the Trump-Pence administration, but I think they want to see leadership that more reflects the character of the American people: namely, the commitment to principle and civility that Americans show to one another. . every day,’ Pence said.
“So if we get into the fray, we’ll offer that kind of leadership.”
Pence was asked if he was arguing that he was the best choice for Republican voters who supported the policies of the Trump administration, but now not Trump. Pence did not respond directly.
“I promise you that if I become a candidate for President of the United States, it will be me,” Pence said. “I’ll do it all the way I’ve always aspired to, and that’s to show the kind of respect to people, even those of different opinions, that I think Americans show each other every day.”
“We have to get back to having a government as good as our people, and I am confident that one day soon we will,” he said.