Mike Pence crying at Donald Trump at the 2024 campaign launch

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By Sarah Smith, North America Editor, and Max Matza, BBC News June 7, 2023, 20:31 GMT

Updated 41 minutes ago

Image source, Getty Images

Former US Vice President Mike Pence offered his strongest disapproval of Donald Trump yet during a speech launching his 2024 campaign.

The Republican accused Trump of being unfaithful to the US constitution and abandoning conservative values.

The former Indiana governor and congressman officially kicked off his campaign at the White House on Wednesday.

The move pits him against his two-time running mate, under whom he served in the White House from 2017-21.

In a speech in Ankeny, Iowa, Mr. Pence argued that Mr. Trump encouraged the gangs that attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and incorrectly asserted that Pence had the power to overturn the election result.

“But the American people deserve to know that on that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution,” he said.

“Now, the electorate will face the same choice: I chose the Constitution and always will.”

He added that Mr. Trump’s actions on January 6 should deny him a return to power.

“I believe that anyone who puts himself above the Constitution should never be president of the United States,” he said.

“And whosoever shall ask any other to put them into the Constitution shall never again become President of the United States.”

explain video,

How Mike Pence became a villain in Trump’s world

Pence, 64, has also fired at Democratic President Joe Biden, arguing that neither he nor Mr. Trump are like average Americans who know how to “treat each other with kindness and respect even when we disagree.”

Much of his speech focused on his differences with Mr. Trump, but he also took aim at another Republican challenger in 2024, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“Donald Trump and others seeking the presidency will move away from our traditional role on the world stage,” he said.

Pence was one of eight Republican presidential candidates who attended a fundraising event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, known as The Roast and Ride, last weekend.

He arrived on a Harley-Davidson with a few hundred other motorcyclists who rode in caravan, collecting money for army veterans. But this was not enough to generate much excitement around his candidacy.

The energetic Ron DeSantis got the most enthusiastic response for promising to “fight wakes” wherever he finds them.

By comparison, Pence’s rhetoric was flat and lackluster, perhaps explaining why the former vice president better known by his national name trails so badly in the polls.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos survey last month, Pence polls at 5%, compared to 44% for Trump.

Todd Wilson, a former Trump voter, said he felt Pence “needs to be a little bit stronger.”

The candidate’s humility was a plus, he said, “But I think if you’re going to be president, you have to have a little bit of a bulldog. So I’m looking for that from a penny.”

The Republican arena for the 2024 candidacy is getting crowded.

On Tuesday, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie fired a bid. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum also announced Wednesday he’s entering the race.

what happened after that?

The candidates for the Republican nomination will hit the campaign trail and start a series of televised debates in the coming months – elections in each state – called primaries – begin next February, and the person most supported at the Republican convention will be crowned in the summer of 2024. It appears that the nomination will face Democrat Joe Biden in General elections in November 2024

Pence has been seen as an unwaveringly loyal running mate to Trump for most of his four years in office.

But he has distanced himself since the riots at the US Capitol.

Mr. Trump pressured Pence to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory when he presided over the results’ certification in Congress and admonished him for lacking “courage” when he refused.

Some rioters were heard chanting “Hang Mike Pence” as they stormed the halls of Congress, and many Trump loyalists consider him a traitor.

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