OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former Vice President Mike Pence has reportedly been mulling a presidential run in 2024, and he gave a rather interesting response to a question this week about t potential bid.
Pence was speaking at a Young Americans Foundation (YAF) event at the University of Virginia on Tuesday, during which he blasted President Joe Biden and his administration for deferring to the Democratic Party’s far-left “wokeism” while also taking student’s questions, Fox News reported.
“I was just wondering if you’re planning to run in 2024 for president,” one student queried.
Pence replied: “I’ll keep you posted.”
The network added:
Pence also addressed the recent uproar over transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who took the women’s NCAA championship in the 500-yard freestyle race in March despite being biologically male.
It was a UVA swimmer, Emma Weyant, who came in second to Thomas.
“Emma Weyant won that race,” Pence said in response to a student who asked about the event before going on to ridicule Biden.
“I know that in his State of the Union address President Biden promised to stand for the God-given right of men to compete in women’s sports,” Pence said. “But common sense needs to reign and it will reign. And we need to defend the integrity of women’s sports in America for the benefit of women everywhere.”
The former vice president was also asked at one point what he would do or say if one of his children told him they were gay, with the audience applauding the question. “I would look them in the eye and tel them, ‘I love you,'” Pence responded.
Pence and former President Donald Trump had a major falling out following Jan. 6, 2021, when the vice president rebuffed Trump’s pleas to not count electoral votes from states he contested following the 2020 election. Pence has said he believes it was his constitutional duty to do so and that the founding document left him no leeway to do otherwise.
In the months after the two left office, reports suggested the pair had been working on repairing their relationship. But at some point last summer, those efforts appear to have stalled according to Pence, who said in late January he and Trump haven’t talked since then.
The Washington Examiner noted:
The former vice president indicated his relationship with the former president has suffered from tension over the events of Jan. 6, 2021, a date on which the two expressed differing views of the vice president’s constitutional responsibility in overseeing the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
“You know, we talked last summer,” Pence told Fox News’ Jesse Watters. “And, you know, I’ve said many times, it was difficult. Jan. 6 was difficult. It was a tragic day in the life of the nation.”
“I know I did my duty under the Constitution of the United States,” Pence added. “But the president and I sat down in the days that followed that. We spoke about it, talked through it. We parted amicably.”
Pence’s decision to rebuff Trump has put him at odds with a great many of the former president’s supporters. And Trump himself has spoken about the situation in recent months.
“I think Mike has been very badly hurt by what took place in respect to Jan. 6,” Trump noted at an event in Florida in December. “I think he’s been mortally wounded, frankly, because I see the reaction he’s getting from people.”
But the former president also said that Pence’s decision to count all electoral votes was really his only beef with his vice president who he otherwise praised.
“It’s like saying we won the game, [and] we win another game, but we got our a** kicked in the World Series,” Trump said. “Mike should have sent those crooked votes back to the legislatures, and you would have had a different result in the election, in my opinion.”
Trump has not said whether he will run again in 2024 though he has hinted that he would many times.
