Pence distances himself from Trump as he eyes 2024 campaign

NEW YORK (AP):

After Donald Trump was caught on video bragging about sexually assaulting women, Mike Pence stayed on his ticket. As the coronavirus ravaged the US, the then vice- president praised the administration’s response. And after a violent mob threatened his life during an attack on the US Capitol, Pence rejected entreaties to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

But after years of being a subservient sidekick, Pence is beginning to distance himself from Trump as he takes increasingly overt steps towards a White House bid of his own.

Last month, Pence called out Trump by name, saying his former boss was “wrong” to insist that he had the power to unilaterally overturn the results of the 2020 election – a power vice-presidents do not possess. In a separate speech before top Republican donors, Pence urged the GOP to move on from Trump’s 2020 grievances and declared “there is no room in this party for apologists” for Vladimir Putin, after Trump praised the Russian leader’s manoeuvring as “genius” before his brutal invasion of Ukraine.

The moves show how Pence, a former congressman and Indiana governor, is working to craft a political identity independent of his former boss. The strategy carries substantial risk in a party still dominated by Trump and his lie that the 2020 election was stolen. But if Pence successfully navigates this moment, it could offer a model for Republicans to benefit from their work with Trump without being tied to his most toxic behaviour, which has consistently hurt the party with crucial suburban voters, who often determine elections.

“When you’re in the role of vice-president, there’s certain opportunities that affords and, certainly, certain constraints,” Marc Short, who served as Pence’s chief of staff at the White House, said of Pence’s recent moves. “You sort of assume a different identity for those four years, because your job is to support the president and what he’s doing.”

Aides stress that Pence, who spent decades in conservative radio and politics before joining Trump’s ticket in 2016, has a host of views and principles that are deeply held, including some that deviate from Trump’s. They expect him to frequently invoke those views, including his fierce opposition to abortion rights, as he campaigns for Republicans ahead of this year’s midterms.

They note in particular that Pence has long been a critic of Putin, and expect him to keep speaking out on Ukraine. In a trip that seemed to cast Pence with a presidential aura, he made an unannounced visit to the Ukrainian border with Poland shortly after the invasion, where he crossed into Ukraine and helped deliver aid to the flood of refugees who were escaping the war.

The Rev Franklin Graham, the evangelist and president of Samaritan’s Purse, the international Christian relief organisation that organised Pence’s visit to the Ukrainian border, said Pence’s evolution was a natural one.

“People are seeing the real Mike Pence. As vice-president, you have to toe the line of the president, and you have to be in step with everything the president says,” Graham said. Now, “people are seeing who he is and what he’s standing for, and what he says. So it’s not repeating what the president says. It’s saying what he believes ... . He’s speaking for himself now and not President Trump.”