[ad_1]
“I think he’s better than Joe Biden,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said. “It’s that simple.”
“So the alternative candidate is Biden,” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said.
“The choice before the American people is clear: Donald Trump or Joe Biden,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (SD).
President Trump’s own vice president took a very different view Friday.
In declining his support for Trump, Mike Pence has made a major statement that undermines other Trump-skeptical Republicans who have shown through their actions that they have no other choice. did. His decision could also provide a mechanism for those whose support is up in the air, like Nikki Haley, to be allowed to withhold their support.
“It’s no surprise that I’m not supporting Donald Trump this year,” Pence told Fox News on Friday.
But it was amazing. After all, Mr. Pence raised his hand during an August debate when asked whether he and other Republican presidential candidates would support Mr. Trump if they were nominated, even though he had a criminal conviction. It was.
The argument made by Mr. Pence is also worth noting. He doesn’t see Trump as a danger to democracy, nor is he angry enough to attack Trump for refusing to try to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, 2021. . (Some rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” and Trump continued to attack Pence on Twitter after being informed of the Capitol riot.)
Instead, Pence argued that current President Trump is not conservative on issues such as abortion, the national debt, and other issues. China and TikTok.
“Donald Trump has pursued and articulated policies that are at odds with the conservative policies we have been under for four years,” Pence said.・I cannot support Mr. Trump.”
Pence insisted he would not support Biden but said he would otherwise keep his ballot private. In some cases, candidates may say that they are voting for the candidate but not strictly endorsing them. Pence won’t go that far either.
This, while blaming President Trump for the events of January 6th and his chaotic governing style, He suggested that they had no choice now that he was the candidate. Because they share party labels and a common enemy, they have treated Trump’s support as a formality – regardless of what they have said before.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said last week that “as the Republican leader in the Senate, supporting the Republican presidential nominee should not be a front-page headline.”
Mr. Pence often says, “I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican.” In this case, he is suggesting that his second is actually more important than his third. And this poses a challenge to other Republicans emphasizing number three.
Mr. Pence’s lack of support also highlights the rift between Republican elected officials and those who actually served in the Cabinet with Mr. Trump. NBC News contacted 44 former Cabinet members last summer and found only four had pledged to support Trump at the time during the early stages of the primaries. There are many strong critics of President Trump, such as former Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and former Defense Secretaries Jim Mattis and Mark T. Esper.
These officials have something in common with many former allies who have broken with Trump once and for all. In other words, they don’t have an immediate political future in mind, and they don’t have a pro-Trump political base to appeal to.
Pence is probably in that camp, too. President Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign failed and went up in flames as he took a stand against the vice president who had served him faithfully. But there is at least a viable path for Mr. Pence to engage with the conservative movement, and Mr. Pence nevertheless took a very important step in countering Mr. Trump.
Now let’s see if others follow his example.
[ad_2]
Source link
