Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday he would prefer a Republican alternative to former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, while floating reforms to popular entitlement programs as he mulls his own possible White House run.
“I think we’re going to have better choices” than Trump, Pence said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” when asked if the GOP should nominate someone other than the former president next year. Pence did not explicitly rule out supporting Trump if he became the GOP nominee.
The ex-vice president, who served under Trump in the White House for four years, also appeared to take a soft swipe at his former boss when discussing Republicans’ underperformance in the midterm elections.
“Our candidates that were focused on the past, particularly on relitigating the last election, did not do well, including in areas that we should have done very well,” Pence said.
Pence is expected to be considering his own presidential run — a move that could put him in direct competition with Trump, who has attacked him for refusing to help overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. After Pence said on Jan. 6, 2021, that he wouldn’t go along with Trump’s scheme, a violent mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, sending the then-vice president and congressional lawmakers into hiding.
But Pence offered only a cryptic answer about his presidential plans in the new interview Wednesday.
“I’ll keep you posted,” he said when asked if he sought the Republican presidential nomination.
Pence demurred as some of his would-be challengers have begun to file into the GOP primary. After several relatively quiet months when Trump was the only notable Republican on the campaign trail, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley last week became his first major primary challenger. Another candidate, entrepreneur and right-wing culture warrior Vivek Ramaswamy, entered the presidential race on Tuesday.
A host of other Republicans, including Florida Gov….
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