2023-06-07 18:45:00
7.06.2023 20:45
(Akt. 7.06.2023 20:50)
Former Vice is running for the highest office
©APA/AFP
At the start of his presidential campaign, former US Vice President Mike Pence sharply criticized his strongest internal party competitor and former boss Donald Trump. With a view to the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, he accused Trump of endangering him and his family with his words. Trump put himself above the constitution, Pence attacked the ex-president head-on.
“The American people deserve to know that on that fateful day, President Trump also asked me to choose between him and the Constitution,” Pence said of January 6, 2021. Now voters would be faced with the same decision again placed. “Anyone who puts themselves above the Constitution should never be President of the United States,” he said. And anyone who asks someone else to put them above the constitution should never be president again.
Trump supporters stormed the Congressional seat on January 6, 2021, as Pence presided over the confirmation of Democrat Biden’s victory. Trump had claimed in the days before that Pence, in his capacity as chairman of the US Senate, could simply reject election results from individual states, which legal experts and the vice president considered unlawful. During the Capitol storm, Trump tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the guts to do what should be done.” Shouts of “Hang Pence” came from the mob. After the attack ended, Congress, chaired by Pence, completed confirming Biden’s victory. Pence later described Trump’s statements and his behavior as dangerous.
Pence made the statement just hours after publicly announcing his presidential candidacy. In it he had left out his former boss. “I announce today before God and my family that I am running for President of the United States,” Pence said in a video posted to Twitter on Wednesday, on his birthday. The 64-year-old had already submitted the necessary documents to the Federal Electoral Commission on Monday. In the evening he wanted to answer the questions of voters at a citizens’ question time of the television station CNN in Iowa.
With his application, Pence wants to thwart a comeback by his former boss Trump. According to polls, he is the clear favorite in the Republican primaries. Pence is hardly given a chance, but he could become uncomfortable with Trump because of his first-hand experience of the controversial ex-president in the election campaign.
In his application video, Pence targeted US President Joe Biden and his Democrats. “Our country is in deep trouble today. President Joe Biden and the far left have weakened America at home and abroad,” he said. “Out of control inflation” is destroying the American dream. Wages are falling and a recession is on the horizon. The US southern border is under siege by migrants and the “enemies of freedom” are on the rise worldwide, Pence said. But God has not yet finished with America. Together we can bring the country back to its old strength. “The best days for the greatest nation in the world are yet to come,” he says.
Besides Trump, the most prominent Republican presidential candidates are Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. Other contenders include Senator Tim Scott, former Governor of Southern Arkansas Asa Hutchinson, and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. The presidential election is scheduled for November 5, 2024. An internal party primary decides who ultimately becomes the official candidate.
Less movement is to be expected among the Democrats. President Biden is up for re-election, and as incumbent he is unlikely to face any serious competition from within his own ranks in the election campaign.
Pence sees himself as a classic conservative who wants to bring the Republican Party back to its roots. He is deeply religious, likes to talk a lot about religion, cultivates the image of a good civil servant. For Trump, the evangelical Christian covered this important constituency at the time. Pence also supports a nationwide ban on abortion, which is very important to many Conservatives, especially on the outer fringes.
“Different times require different leadership,” Pence emphasizes in his video. It would be “easy to stay on the sidelines,” but that’s not how he was brought up – that’s why he wants to be president.
Although Pence is well known through his tenure as Vice President, he has struggled with poor popularity ratings. For years, Pence appeared as a loyal companion of Trump. Far more than other vice presidents before him, he was keen on continually praising his boss and putting him on some sort of pedestal. But at the latest in the turmoil after the 2020 presidential election, the relationship between the two was permanently damaged.
Nevertheless, Pence recently spoke moderately about his former boss. For example, he rejected charges against Trump for his role in the storming of the Capitol. “It would be incredibly divisive in a country at a time when the American people want to see us heal,” Pence said. He used the same reasoning to defend Trump against charges of paying hush money to a porn star.
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