Former President Donald Trump has been quite a tease when it comes to his plans for 2024. He's been previewing a rematch between him and President Joe Biden for months now, with pollsters getting in on the action and asking respondents what they think. Trump's vague discussions of running again have once more involved discussions of who his running mate might be. In this case, it's actually who it won't be.
On Wednesday, "Pence" was trending on Twitter, as Trump had shared Mike Pence will likely not be his running mate in the future. During an interview with The Washington Examiner, Trump shared that "I don’t think the people would accept it." He expanded further in the interview, talking about the events of January 6, 2021.
From the interview:
The former president cited friction stemming from the aftermath of the 2020 election, suggesting their differences are too stark to overcome. Trump claimed the contest was stolen and wanted Pence to overturn the results during the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Pence, who in his capacity as Senate president was presiding over the certification proceedings, refused, explaining the Constitution granted him no such authority.
Trump continues to insist otherwise. He pointed to bipartisan talks on Capitol Hill to reform the Electoral Count Act, the law governing the congressional certification of Electoral College results, as proof his vice president could have thrown out electoral votes from various states and facilitated a second term for the Trump-Penchttps://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/18297/10e ticket. The former president called Pence a “really fine person” but signaled their relationship might be irrevocably broken.
“Mike and I had a great relationship except for the very important factor that took place at the end. We had a very good relationship,” Trump said. “I haven’t spoken to him in a long time.”
Trump had also discussed the potential for another running mate, when speaking last April with FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo. As I covered at the time, Trump said he'd "certainly" consider Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as his running mate. The former and perhaps future president offered "a lot of people like that... they like that ticket."
While for a time recently it seemed that Trump and DeSantis were at odds, that was put to rest. As Leah covered last month, the governor affirmed that he and Trump, who is now also a Florida resident, share a good relationship.
"They know the Democrats are in for a shellacking in 2022. So they're trying to change the topic, and they're trying to drive dissension among Republicans," DeSantis shared with Fox News about the mainstream media trying to cover divisions within the Republican Party that aren't there. “And so my message to people is, don't take that bait."
Last weekend, during a rally in South Carolina, Trump earned a particularly noteworthy amount of applause when he said "we may have to run again." He invited further speculation when reminding "in 2024 we are going to take back that beautiful, beautiful White House," as he teased. "I wonder who will do that. I wonder. I wonder."
Both Trump and DeSantis spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that was held last month. As Landon covered, 59 percent of respondents backed Trump in the straw poll, with DeSantis coming in at second place with 28 percent, up from 21 percent in 2021. If Trump was not on the ballot, however, DeSantis would have come in at first place with 61 percent of the vote. Pence had 0.6 percent of the vote.
According to a Wall Street Journal survey released last Friday, Trump and Biden are tied with 45 percent support each. Previous polls from other sources have shown Trump with a narrow lead.
Yet there's doubt that Biden will run. That same poll found that 52 percent of respondents don't think Biden will run, as a recent WSJ write-up highlighted. Only a plurality of Democrats, at 41 percent, think Biden will run for re-election, while 32 percent don't think he will, and 26 percent of Democrats are undecided.
When it comes to Trump, however, the survey found that 49 percent of respondents expect Trump to run again. This includes 60 percent of Republicans.
