Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is not bothered by former Vice President Mike Pence’s decision not to endorse his bid for the White House.
Asked about comments his former vice president and 2020 running mate made about him last week, Trump said he was not at all bothered about Pence’s decision to break his pledge to support the GOP’s eventual nominee.
“I couldn’t care less,” Trump told reporters of Pence’s stance on his third White House bid as he voted in the Florida primary.
“We need patriots,” Trump added. “We need strong people in our country. Our country is going downhill very fast, very rapidly.”
Trump also took a shot at Pence, who suspended his own presidential campaign last October before a single vote was cast in the Republican primary.
“We need strong people in this country. We don’t need weak people,” Trump said.
President Trump on Mike Pence withholding his endorsement: “I couldn’t care less.” pic.twitter.com/cs8JTv2u7R
— RSBN 🇺🇸 (@RSBNetwork) March 19, 2024
Pence ran a campaign that failed to resonate with voters and promised last August he would follow the Republican National Committee’s rule on candidates vowing to support the eventual nominee for president in order to participate in the debates.
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But last Friday during an interview with Fox News, the former Indiana governor said he could not “in good conscience” support Trump.
🚨 BREAKING: Mike Pence says he will not endorse Donald Trump in 2024.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 15, 2024
“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence said. “Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years, and that’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.”
Pence said he was proud of his four years serving Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2021 but that their different stances on key issues were something he could not look beyond.
“During my presidential campaign, I made it clear that there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues and not just our difference on my Constitutional duties that I exercised on Jan. 6,” Pence said.
Pence said he supported an agenda to shrink the national debt, differed with Trump on the issue of abortion and that he also was maligned with his former boss on the issue of TikTok remaining accessible in the U.S. while in the hands of Chinese Communist Party ownership.
Pence was chosen as Trump’s running mate in July 2016 and the two worked together well for years.
When Trump challenged the results of the 2020 election, he asked Pence to send contested slates of electors back to their states during the certification of the election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence declined to do so and made the issue something to campaign on.
For many conservatives who were skeptical of the election outcome and in the eyes of Trump, Pence failed to deliver for the conservative movement.
Pence’s 2024 campaign never took off.
He suspended the White House bid while polling in the low single digits and with a shortage of cash.
“I’m leaving this campaign, but let me promise you, I will never leave the fight for conservative values and I will never stop fighting to elect principled Republican leaders to every office in the land. So help me God,” Pence said said when he dropped out of the race, CNN reported.
