Donald Trump and his former Vice President Mike Pence, two potential Republican candidates for the 2024 US presidential election, held rival rallies in Arizona on Friday.
The pair, whose successful 2016 campaign landed the Republican billionaire in the White House, are now estranged after Mike Pence’s refusal to block certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, and support rival candidates for the post of governor of this state in the south-west of the United States.
This remote duel in Arizona – Mike Pence was in the capital Phoenix to support Karrin Taylor Robson, Donald Trump in Prescott Valley to support Kari Lake – came the day after revelations about the situation of the former vice-president during the assault on the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.
Scrambled after the 2020 presidential election
Mike Pence, who was there to oversee the certification of the election results, had to hide to escape the rioters like many parliamentarians on both sides.
His bodyguards “began to fear for their own lives” and “to bid farewell to their families”, a White House official said on condition of anonymity before the House committee investigating the events of the January 6.
Donald Trump had long refused to call on his supporters to leave the Congress building and even reproached his vice-president in a tweet for not wanting to block the certification, fueling the grievances of the protesters.
Different supports
After keeping the crowd waiting for more than two hours, he began his Friday speech by talking about immigration – a major campaign issue in Arizona, a state that shares a long stretch of border with Mexico.
Before quickly slanting towards the 2020 election: “The election was rigged and stolen and our country is now systematically destroyed because of it”, he launched to a crowd which ignited in return.
“Arizona finally has a chance to have a SUPER governor. Vote for Kari Lake,” Donald Trump wrote Thursday on his Truth Social social network. For his part, Mike Pence, who had tweeted upstream that he was “looking forward to campaigning with the next governor of Arizona @Karrin4Arizona!”, spoke for about twenty minutes in front of an audience seated in a warehouse.
Candidates for the next election?
Mike Pence hailed the accomplishments of “four years of the Trump-Pence administration,” briefly criticizing the former president-backed candidate for previously being a supporter of the Democrats and for her initial opposition to Donald Trump.
“The Republicans of Arizona do not need a governor who has supported Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton,” noted Mike Pence, also believing, with reference to Donald Trump’s accusations concerning the 2020 election, that “if the Republican Party lets itself be consumed by past grudges, we will lose.”
Donald Trump, who retains a strong hold on the Republican Party, is flirting more and more openly with the idea of a presidential candidacy in 2024. Mike Pence is increasing his interventions at conferences or appearances with candidates from local elections. He does not rule out running against his former running mate, assuring to pray on the issue and that he and his wife Karen will go “where we are called”.