- Former Vice President Mike Pence deflected on whether he would pardon Trump because he could still be found innocent
- The 2024 presidential contender said Trump has not served as a conservative
- Also said he always hoped Trump would eventually accept the 2020 results
Presidential hopeful Mike Pence won’t say whether he would pardon Donald Trump, claiming that the former president could still be found innocent in his federal indictment.
Trump’s former VP shared with NBC host Chuck Todd that he was hoping Trump would ‘come around’ to accepting the results of the 2020 election by now.
Pence is now running against his former boss in the 2024 primary – and argued that Trump is not the same leader he was when they ran together in 2016.
Now that Trump was levied earlier this month a federal indictment with 37 separate counts, the crowded GOP primary field is being asked to weigh-in on the case.
‘Well, let me say first and foremost, I don’t know why some of my competitors in the Republican primary presume the president will be found guilty,’ Pence told NBC’s Meet the Press.
WATCH: Would fmr. VP @Mike_Pence be running for president had Trump “come around” on accepting the 2020 election results?
Pence: “I always hoped [Trump] would come around. … No one who puts himself over the Constitution should ever be president.” pic.twitter.com/wXX0izcgM5
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 18, 2023
‘Look, all we know is what the president has been accused of in the indictment,’ he continued. ‘We don’t know what his defense is. We don’t know if this will even go to trial. It could be subject to a motion to dismiss. We don’t know what the verdict will be of the jury.’
Meanwhile, longshot Republican presidential contender and self-made biotech millionaire Vivek Ramaswamy has already said he would pardon Trump if he becomes the chief executive.
Fellow far-out contender and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is running on an anti-Trump platform, called Ramaswamy’s commitment ‘offensive’ and ‘pathetic.’
Pence, however, says the question on a pardon is ‘premature.’
‘I just think this whole matter is incredibly divisive for the country. And, look, I just think at the end of the day, it is saddening to me that we are now in this moment,’ Pence told Todd.
On his bid to take the nomination from Trump, Pence made the argument that Trump has strayed from his 2016 stances that were more hard-line conservative.
Pence vowed to restore that in the White House.
There are already 13 people running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Trump is far ahead of the field in early polls, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is in second – usually falling about 20 percentage points behind the ex-president.
The former vice president also commented on the 2020 election, which Trump still insists was stolen in a mass voter fraud scheme. Todd asked Pence if he would be running for president now if Trump had accepted the results of the last president election.
