Former Vice President Mike Pence is participating in a CNN town hall as questions swirl about his plans for 2024 and the direction of the Republican Party after a disappointing showing in last week’s midterm elections.
CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper are moderating the discussion.
The town hall with Former Vice President Mike Pence is taking place the day after former President Donald Trump announced his third bid for president and just hours after CNN projected Republicans will win the House. The event also follows the release of Pence’s memoir, “So Help Me God,” on Tuesday.
According to the report by CNN, the former vice president Mike Pence has hinted at his own potential 2024 run, recently telling ABC News he thinks “we’ll have better choices in the future” than Trump. In the same interview, he criticized Trump for being “reckless” with his tweet attacking him on Jan. 6, 2021.
Former Vice President Mike Pence has been coy about his plans for 2024, but he has long been viewed as a potential aspirant for the Republican presidential nomination.
Pence on his reaction to Jan. 6 chants to hang him: “It angered me”
During tonight’s CNN town hall, Jake Tapper played footage of rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 chanting “hang Mike Pence,” and asked former Vice President Mike Pence to reflect on what he felt in those moments. Pence first said it saddened him to see those images, adding “that day it angered me.”
He noted that he told Secret Service that he would not leave the Capitol and was determined to stay at his post, in part because he did not want to give those rioters the sight of his motorcade speeding away that day.
“But frankly, when I saw those images, and when I read a tweet that President Trump issued, saying that I lacked courage in that moment. It angered me greatly,” Pence told Tapper. But, he said, “I didn’t have time for it.”
“The President had decided in that moment to be a part of the problem,” Pence said. He added he “was determined to be part of the solution. And so we essentially set that aside.”
He said he gathered the Republican and Democratic leadership of the House and Senate on a conference call, reached out to leadership at the Pentagon and the Justice Department “to surge additional resources” to assist Capitol Hill police officers.
Ultimately, he noted they were able to reconvene Congress on the same day.
“We demonstrated to the American people and the world the strength of our institutions, the resilience of our democracy, but those memories, those images will always be with me,” Pence said.
Pence: Jan. 6 insurrection was the most difficult day of my public life
Former Vice President Mike Pence said that Jan. 6, 2021, was “the most difficult day of my public life,” during tonight’s CNN town hall.
“Clearly the days leading up to Jan. 6 and Jan. 6 itself was the most difficult day of my public life,” Pence responded to a question from an audience member, Daniela Moloci, a student from Indiana University.
Pence went on to discuss how he was “always loyal” to former President Donald Trump and kept any disagreements he had with him private.
“I thought it was important, as vice president, that I offer my advice and my counsel to the president confidentially. And we did. But I had one higher loyalty, and that was to God and the Constitution. And that’s what set in motion the confrontation that would come to pass on Jan. 6 because I had taken an oath to the Constitution of the United States,” Pence said.
He said that on the day of the insurrection he was determined to keep his oath – and going against Trump’s wishes that day after working closely with him “was difficult.”
“But I’ll always believe that we did our duty that day upholding the Constitution of the United States and the laws of this country and the peaceful transfer of power,” the former vice president said.
Pence on a 2024 presidential run: “I’ll keep you posted”
He’s published a memoir, gone out on the media circuit for interviews and is standing now at a CNN town hall – so what are Pence’s plans and do they involve a run for president in 2024?
Faced with that question on Wednesday night, Pence was coy.
“I’ll keep you posted,” Pence told Jake Tapper.
Moments earlier, as he avoided committing his support to former President Donald Trump’s newly announced campaign, Pence said, “I think it’s time for new leadership in this country that will bring us together around our highest ideals.”
Pressed on the question about his own future, Pence replied, “There may be someone else in that contest I’d prefer more.”
“I honestly believe we’re going to have better choices,” Pence said.
Pence says Republicans will have “better choices” than Trump in 2024 presidential race
Former Vice President Mike Pence said in a CNN town hall Wednesday night that Republicans will “have better choices” in the 2024 presidential race than former President Donald Trump.
Pence told CNN’s Jake Tapper he believes Americans “want us to get back to the policies of the Trump-Pence administration.”
“The other thing that I’ve heard consistently is the American people are looking for new leadership — leadership that will unite our country around our highest ideals, leadership that will reflect the civility and respect that most Americans have for each other,” Pence said.
He did not directly address whether he will run for president himself but alluded to the possibility.
“I think in the days ahead, whatever role I and my family play in the Republican Party, whether it’s as a candidate or simply a part of the cause, I think we’ll have better choices than my old running mate. I think America longs to go back to the policies that were working for the American people – but I think it’s time for new leadership,” Pence said.
Pence says he thinks Americans want leaders who will debate issues “with gentleness and respect”
On the topic of political divisiveness in America, former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday he thinks people want to see leadership that will unite people around our “highest ideals.”
At a CNN town hall, Pence said that during his early days in politics he “got involved in one of those negative personal attacks,” but when it was all over, he tried to get back to his faith and move forward in a way that demonstrated decency with a commitment to treating people decently.
He said he believes that Americans are looking to get back to that sentiment.
“We’re going into a season where the American people are looking for that kind of leadership that vigorously debates our issues, stands strongly for them, as I always have, but does so with gentleness and respect,” Pence said.
On the topic of Donald Trump, a candidate and president who highlighted divides in American politics, Pence said when Trump was the Republican nominee for president he “was the right man at the right time.”
He said he believes Trump was the only candidate that could have beaten Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016, pointing to the unique political landscape.
But Pence added that he thinks we are “moving into a different season in America.”