Trump Rules Out Pence as 2024 Running Mate: “Mike Committed Political Suicide”

As former President Donald Trump mulls over prospective running mates for a 2024 run, he says he has already determined one person who won’t make the cut.

Trump ruled out former Vice President Mike Pence as his wingman in a third presidential bout, disheartened by Pence’s refusal to heed to pressure in a bid to overturn the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021, he told the authors of a new book.

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“It would be totally inappropriate,” Trump told the authors of The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, according to the Guardian. “Mike committed political suicide” with his decision on Jan. 6, Trump added.

Pence resisted pressure by Trump and his supporters to stall the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory and send electoral votes back to several battleground states where GOP-led legislatures could try to overturn the results over supposed concerns about fraud and irregularities. After consulting his confidants, Pence refused to capitulate, concluding that the vice president merely played a ceremonial role in the process and had no authority to rebuff the election results.

Trump has since publicly repudiated Pence for showing a lack of loyalty to him and an absence of “courage” more broadly. Rioters on Jan. 6 chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” and the former president mused behind the scenes that his No. 2 deserved such banter, former aides of Trump claimed.

Pence has publicly conceded that it is “no secret” Trump and he splintered over Jan. 6, when rioters disrupted the counting of the electoral votes, and bemoaned it as a “tragic day.”

“The American people have a right to know what happened that day. And in the months and years ahead, I’ll be telling my story even more frequently than I have,” he declared at a “Politics & Eggs” event in New Hampshire last month.

Despite Trump’s brash persona and unencumbered style of politics, Pence remained steadfastly loyal to him throughout the turbulent years of the Trump administration, the book claims. Pence famously drew a sharp temperamental contrast with his onetime boss, exuding a less imposing and more verbally restrained persona compared to Trump.

“The most [he] would say of Trump was, ‘He’s like an untamed lion who came into the city,” a source told the authors of the book. “When this person expressed pointed criticism, the vice-president would simply reply, ‘Well, we’re praying for him,’” the book said, per the Guardian.

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The book was written by married reporter couple Peter Baker, of the New York Times, and Susan Glasser, of the New Yorker, who interviewed Trump in April and November of last year.

Trump previously told New York Magazine that his decision has already been made about 2024 and that the only outstanding issue is when he would make an announcement. Meanwhile, Pence has stoked 2024 speculation with recent trips to New Hampshire and Iowa over recent weeks.

The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 is set for publication next Tuesday.