Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday highlighted sharp differences along with his former boss, rejecting ex-President Donald Trump’s stances on the debt ceiling and Ukraine while stoking more speculation about his 2024 presidential ambitions.
“In relation to the debt ceiling, failure shouldn’t be an option,” Pence said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We will not accept default, we won’t minimize the impact that will have on American families and American credibility on this planet.”
Pence’s remarks got here in response to a matter about Trump’s recent call for Republicans to let the U.S. default on its debt if Democrats is not going to comply with “massive” spending cuts. The White House and congressional leaders are in deep negotiations to forestall a default by early June, which is when the federal government could run out of cash to pay its bills.
The previous vp also accused Trump and President Joe Biden of holding “an identical” spending-heavy fiscal policy views, whilst he called to make everlasting the “Trump-Pence tax cuts” of 2017.
But when he was asked about whether defense spending cuts could possibly be a part of a plan to return to “fiscal solvency,” Pence balked.
“At a time when China is literally floating a recent battleship every month and continuing military provocations across the Asia-Pacific and Russia’s waging an unprovoked war in eastern Europe, the last item we must be doing is cutting defense spending,” Pence said.
Pence is openly weighing a campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and his remarks Wednesday morning — delivered from the important thing primary state of Recent Hampshire, where he was set to seem at multiple events this week — offered more hints about his plans.
“We’ll let our intentions be known, I’m confident, before the top of June,” Pence said of his possible presidential campaign announcement. “The rationale I got here here to Recent Hampshire partly is because once you’re in Recent Hampshire, it looks like you get just a little bit more attention once you’re talking about things that matter.”
Trump is currently the clear polling favorite within the Republican primary field, even when including figures like Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is anticipated to mount a competitive presidential bid in the approaching weeks.
Pence reaffirmed his view that there might be “higher selections” than Trump for president in 2024, before rattling off a lot of his policy disagreements with the frontrunner.
“The [former] president and I even have a difference by way of American leadership on this planet. I believe we want to lean in and support the Ukrainian military and repel the Russian invasion. I believe that is in our interest and the interest of the free world,” Pence said.
Trump has called for a direct end to the conflict in Ukraine, which began when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion into the neighboring nation. Trump, who previously has praised Putin, has offered few details about how that peace could possibly be achieved. In a recent CNN town hall, Trump wouldn’t say which nation he thought should win the war, and refused to say if he thought Putin was a war criminal.
Pence said that backing Ukraine “also sends a decisive message to China with their military provocations.”
On foreign policy and domestic issues, the U.S. has “got to demand leadership that may stand firm and achieve this stuff,” Pence said, before touting his lengthy record in politics. “I do know what can get done.”
