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Former Republican Vice President, Mike Pence, called on the Republican Party to forget the presidential elections of 1200 and declared that “there is no place in this party for Putin’s apologists”, while consolidating increasingly his disagreement with former President Donald Trump.
In a speech before the main donors of the party in New Orleans, Pence squared off against those who have not categorically condemned Russia’s regime leader, Vladimir Putin, for the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
“? Where would the Russian tanks be today if NATO had not expanded the borders of freedom? There is no place in this party for Putin’s apologists”, the former vice president said, according to excerpts from the speech, which was closed to the press. “There is only room for the champions of freedom.”
Although Pence did not refer directly to the former president. However, Trump has repeatedly used language that has been criticized as respectful towards Putin, including calling the Russian “intelligent” and insisting that the attack had never happened while he was in the White House.
As on other occasions, the former Republican vice president continues to reject Trump’s statements in relation to the elections of 1200 while laying the foundations to be a presidential candidate for the year 2024.
In the same way, Trump has also been advancing his return to be a candidate and return to the White House, which would cause the two to face each other, while insisting that Pence could have invalidated the elections of 2020, which he never did.
“Elections are about the future,” Pence said. “Fellow Republicans, we can only win if we are united around an optimistic vision for the future based on our values Taller. We cannot win by fighting yesterday’s battles, or re-litigating the past”.
The former vice president directly refuted Trump’s false claims that he, in his position at the time, did not have the power to overturn the results and told a meeting of Florida lawyers that Trump is “wrong.”
However, agreed with the expression of Trump and other members of the Party Republican in blaming President Joe Biden for Putin’s actions, accusing him of having “squandered the deterrence that our administration put in place to prevent Putin and Russia from even trying to redraw international borders by force”.
“It is no coincidence that Russia waited until 2022 to invade Ukraine”, Pence said, according to excerpts. “Weakness awakens evil, and the magnitude of the evil that spreads through Ukraine says a lot about this president.”
Although Pence supporters believe he can forge a coalition that brings together the movement’s conservatives, white evangelical Christians, and more established Republicans , Trump’s attacks on his former vice president have made him very unpopular among sectors of the base loyal to the former president, which would complicate his presidential candidacy for the Republican Party.
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