Former President Donald Trump said it doesn’t faze him that his former vice president, Mike Pence, isn’t backing him in his reelection bid.
“I couldn’t care less. I couldn’t care less. We need patriots. We need strong people in our country. Our country is going downhill very fast, very rapidly,” he told reporters after casting his vote in the Florida primary Tuesday.
“Millions of people coming across the border, coming from jails, from prisons, coming from mental institutions and insane asylum terrorists,” he said. “We need strong people in this country. We don’t need weak people.”
Mr. Pence said last week on Fox News’ “The Story” that “it should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year.”
He said the two clash over how the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the Capitol should’ve been handled.
“[We have] our differences on my constitutional duties that I exercised on January 6,” he said.
Mr. Pence has argued that he didn’t have the constitutional right to overturn the election results. Mr. Trump contends he did have that right.
The former vice president made the same point about this year’s race on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday, saying he “cannot in good conscience” endorse Mr. Trump.
“The president’s reversal just in the last week on TikTok, following an administration where we literally changed the national consensus on China, is the reason why I, after a lot of reflection, concluded I cannot endorse the agenda that Donald Trump is carrying into this national debate,” Mr. Pence said.
He briefly ran for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination before dropping out.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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