Washington (EFE).- Former United States Vice President Mike Pence went straight into the mud and launched an affront this Wednesday against former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), of whom he was a running mate, at the official start of his campaign for the Republican primaries ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.
“I don’t think anyone who puts themselves above the Constitution should be president of the United States and no one who asks someone else to put themselves above the Constitution should be president of the United States,” Pence said at his first rally in Ankeny, Iowa. ).
In his speech, the former vice president made it clear that he wants to distance himself from Trump, the favorite candidate to win the Republican nomination in 2024, according to polls, and from whom Pence distanced himself after the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
For this, Pence presented himself as the candidate who will make the Republican Party comply with the magna carta, as opposed to Trump.
The shadow of January 6, 2021
Pence recalled that January 6, when he was the president of Congress in a session to ratify the victory of Democrat Joe Biden against Trump in the 2020 elections and the then Republican president urged him to suspend the process.
“January 6 was a tragic day in the life of our nation, but thanks to the courage of law enforcement the violence was suppressed and we reconvened in Congress that same day to complete the work of the American people under the US Constitution,” Pence recalled.
“As I have said many times – he added -, on that fateful day Trump’s words were reckless, they endangered my family and the whole world.”
That day, thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol while Congress was meeting to certify Biden’s victory, after the then-president encouraged his supporters to march to the Legislative headquarters.
Pence said the American people “deserve to know” that Trump asked them to choose between him and the Constitution that day, and now “voters face the same choice.”
In this sense, he opined that the Republican Party “should be the Party of the US Constitution.”
“We must stand by the Constitution to protect the God-given right to life, we must stand by the Constitution to protect the right to keep and bear arms, we must stand by the Constitution to protect the right to live, work, to pray, according to the dictates of our faith and conscience”, he encouraged.
Pence trusts his base to beat Trump
Throughout his speech, Pence, a man of deep Christian religious convictions, which may be a claim for evangelical voters, made numerous references to the Bible, to praying and to religion.
“I am a Christian, a conservative and a republican, in that order,” he defined himself.
In fact, in another effort to distance himself from Trump, he spoke about the issue of abortion and mentioned that, when the former president ran for the White House for the first time in 2016, he promised to govern as a conservative.
“Together we did this, but today he no longer makes that promise. After leading the most pro-life Administration in US history, Donald Trump and others in this race (toward the 2024 Republican nomination) are withdrawing from the cause of the unborn,” he stated.
At this point, Pence stressed that he is someone who will always defend “the sanctity of life”, against candidates like Trump, who, in his opinion, see this issue as “an inconvenience” and even see it as the reason for the setback. Republican in the 2022 midterm elections.
For the rest, like the rest of the Republican candidates, Pence criticized Biden’s management and pointed out that the country is “unrecognizable” after these years of Democratic government.
Signals multiple crises
He drew a bleak picture with “crises everywhere”, such as on the border, high inflation and the increase in crime due to the Democratic Administration.
Therefore, he justified his candidacy “before God” and his family to return the country to the prosperity of the past.
Pence has been the last Republican to officially launch his campaign, after eleven other candidates have done so, among which Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stand out as favorites.
Other conservatives who have stepped up include North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum; former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley; former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson; former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie; and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.
Together with them, businessmen Vivek Ramaswamy, Ryan Binkley and Perry Johnson have presented their candidacy, as well as broadcaster Larry Elder.