Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that he cannot get behind the 2024 Republican presidential platform of his former boss over myriad policy disagreements, most acutely abortion, and said that he will be "staying out of the presidential campaign."
Pence made the comments at "The Gathering," an annual multiday event organized by conservative Christian radio host Erick Erickson in Atlanta.
Pence eviscerated Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris, saying "she owns the record of the Biden-Harris administration and all its failures." But he said he will not be supporting Republican nominee former President Donald Trump either, an assertion he’s made multiple times before.
"For my part, I’m staying out of the presidential campaign," Pence told Erickson.
"The fact that we have a platform that removed 50 years of pro-life language, made no mention of the national debt, advocated massive taxes at our borders. And abandoning commitments that we have to allies around the world are deeply troubling to me and deeply disappointing," Pence said of the GOP’s platform led by Trump's campaign.
Pence, who ended his presidential bid last October, mentioned Trump by name in March in saying he would not support his former boss.
"I won't be endorsing Donald Trump this year," Pence said in one TV interview.
"The president and I have profound differences. Many people think it's just over Jan. 6. And, frankly, the fact that the president continues to insist that, that I had the right to overturn the election that day is a fundamental difference," Pence added.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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