Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday warned Republicans not to abandon “principles,” as he explained why he “cannot endorse” the GOP presidential ticket in the November elections.
“For my part, you know, I’m staying out of the presidential campaign,” Pence told conservative commentator Erick Erickson in an onstage interview at Erickson’s Atlanta conference dubbed The Gathering.
While assailing the “failures” of the “Biden-Harris administration”—and questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’ fitness to be president—Pence also expressed concern over growing Republican skepticism of U.S. military intervention abroad, the Republican National Committee’s newly moderate position on abortion, and other issues.
Pence, founder of the think tank Advancing American Freedom, ran for the GOP presidential nomination before dropping out last October.
“I just cannot endorse this growing abandonment of our allies on the world’s stage that’s taken hold in parts of our party,” Pence, 65, said. “I cannot endorse ignoring our national debt that reached $35 trillion just in the last week.”
“I cannot support marginalizing the right to life in our party, as we saw in the national platform,” Pence added, referring to the GOP’s official promise not to pursue a national abortion ban.
The former vice president said it was “disappointing” that the GOP “removed 50 years of pro-life language” from its platform.
Pence also cited past disagreement with former President Donald Trump on Pence’s refusal to send Electoral College votes back to the states at a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, in protest of President Joe Biden’s win.
“Between me and my former running mate, I cannot endorse President [Donald] Trump’s continuing assertion that I should have set aside my oath to support and defend the Constitution and acted in a way that would have overturned the election in January of 2021,” Pence said, prompting applause from his audience.
However, Pence repeatedly praised the policies he and Trump put forward during the Trump-Pence administration.
“[I’ve said] it before and I’ll say it again: I’m incredibly proud of what we accomplished together for the American people, because that relationship worked,” Pence said, to more applause.