Former Vice President Mike Pence said in a newly released interview excerpt that he and his family are “prayerfully” considering whether he should run for president in 2024 and that the U.S. will have “better options going forward” than the former president Donald Trump. .
Asked by ABC News’ David Muir if he thinks he can beat Trump, who is expected to announce his 2024 campaign for the White House on Tuesday, Pence replied: “Well, that’s what other people will say, and it would be for to decide whether we would like to try it or not.’
And asked if he thinks his former boss should serve as president again, Pence said: “I think that’s up to the American people. But I believe we will have better options in the future. People in this country do very well when you get out of politics. And I think they want to see their national leaders begin to reflect that same, that same compassion and generosity of spirit. And I think, so in the next few days, I think there will be better options.”
“And for me and my family, we’re going to reflect on what our roles are going to be in this,” he added.
The former vice president has been coy about his plans for 2024, but has long been considered a possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination. But any officially announced bid would almost certainly face strong opposition from Trump, whose supporters he would need in a primary race.
When pressed by Muir on why Trump did not act sooner to stop the violence at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, Pence said he “cannot be held accountable for what the president did” that day and told ABC that he had never heard of Trump or the White House on January 6th.
The former vice president, who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 as the violence unfolded, said he “didn’t feel fear. I was filled with indignation at what I saw.”
Pence, repeating an excerpt from his book published last week in the Wall Street Journal, described how he was at odds with his top Secret Service agent, who initially wanted the vice president out of Capitol Hill. As a compromise, Pence was taken to the loading dock, which he was told was safer, but found the motorcade unable to leave the Capitol.
“We were being walked to the motorcade with the doors to our Suburban open on both sides. And I saw that they had placed vehicles on the ramp. And I just turned to my head of the Secret Service and said, “I’m not getting in that car”… I just assumed that if we got in the car and closed those 200-pound doors, not my team at the loading dock, but that somebody maybe back at Secret Service headquarters he would just order the driver to go,” Pence recalled.
“I just didn’t want these rioters to see the vice president’s motorcade speeding away from the Capitol. I didn’t want to give them that satisfaction,” he added.
Pence is scheduled to participate in a CNN town hall on Wednesday, the day after the release of his upcoming autobiography, “So Help Me God.” The town hall, moderated by CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper, will be held in New York and is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET.
