Former Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to participate in a CNN town hall at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday, the day after former President Donald Trump announced his 2024 presidential run.
The event follows the release on Tuesday of Pence’s autobiography, “So Help Me God,” detailing his rift with Trump over the former president’s actions before and on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol. attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Pence has already fueled speculation that he may face his former colleague for the Republican presidential nomination.
Pence told ABC News in a recent interview that he and his family are “prayerfully considering” the prospect of a 2024 presidential run.
Asked if he thinks Trump should be president again, Pence said: “I think we’ll have better options in the future.”
“People in this country do very well when you leave politics. And I think they want to see their national leaders begin to reflect that same, that same compassion and generosity of spirit,” Pence said. “So in the next few days, I think there will be better options.”
The early stages of the 2024 race are taking place as Republicans are coming off a disappointing midterm performance, when the GOP failed to win the Senate and picked up fewer seats than expected in the House.
Some party officials are bypassing Trump and Pence and pointing to Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis as the party’s future leader. DeSantis won re-election last week, while many Trump-backed candidates in key states were defeated, in part because they parroted his lies about widespread voter fraud.
Pence has broadly vouched for Trump’s character and touted his administration’s policy record.
But he has split with the former president over whether Pence, in his role as vice president overseeing the counting of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021, had any authority to try to overturn the states’ results.
Pence wrote in his new memoir that Trump warned him days before the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol that he would inspire the hatred of hundreds of thousands of people for being “too honest” to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Pence wrote that Trump told him in a phone call on New Year’s Day: “You’re very honest,” he said, predicting that “hundreds of thousands are going to hate your guts” and “people are going to think you’re stupid.”
“Mr. President, I don’t dispute that there were irregularities and fraud,” Pence wrote that he told Trump. “It’s just a matter of who decides, and by law that’s Congress.”
“With that, the president said he guessed it probably ‘takes courage,’ implying that I lacked that,” Pence continued. “I paused before answering and, looking at him from my seat in front of the Resolute Desk, said firmly, “Mr. President, I have courage and you know it.”
Pence wrote that Trump backed down and “said with more than a little regret, ‘Well, I’d have to say you did a great injustice.’
Pence, who said he refused to leave Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, also wrote about his meeting with Trump in the days after Jan. 6. Trump asked Pence: “Were you scared?” the former vice president wrote. “No,” I replied, “I was angry. You and I had our differences that day, Mr. President, and seeing these people tear up the Capitol made me angry.”
Pence wrote that he told Trump he was praying for him and encouraged him to pray. Trump said nothing at first, Pence said, then responded with “real sadness” in his voice: “What if we hadn’t had the rally? What if they hadn’t gone to the Capitol?’
