Mike Pence ‘respects the right’ of fellow Republicans who plan to vote for Trump

Two days after saying he would not endorse a second Donald Trump presidency, former vice-president Mike Pence on Sunday declared his esteem for fellow Republicans who plan to vote for his former boss anyway – and he declined to rule out eventually following suit.

Pence reiterated on CBS’s Face the Nation that he “cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump” in November’s election for a number of policy-related decisions that he insisted were not personal between him and the former president whose supporters chanted for Pence to be hanged publicly as they attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

Yet Pence also told Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan, “I respect the right of Republican voters who have made it clear who they’re for, who they want to be our standard bearer” as Trump has dominated the GOP’s presidential preference primaries in various states to lock up the party’s nomination to challenge Democratic incumbent Joe Biden.

He twice ignored Brennan when she asked Pence: “Would you vote for [Trump]?” And he explicitly said he did not want to suggest prominent Republicans such as Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and US House speaker Mike Johnson were walking away from their conservative principles by endorsing Trump, whose stance on abortion is less rightwing than that of his former vice-president.

Trump “and I [just] have different styles”, Pence said as Brennan pressed him to elaborate on his disposition toward the man whom he served as vice-president after the 2016 election. “We’re different men. … And as I said before, it’s not personal.”

Pence’s exchange with Brennan came after he confirmed to Fox News on Friday that he would refuse to lend his endorsement to Trump, though he also said he would not