南卡罗莱纳州北查尔斯顿前副总统迈克·彭斯周四拒绝透露他是否会支持唐纳德·特朗普如果他的前老板成为2024年共和党总统候选人。
外界普遍预计彭斯将亲自寻求提名，他表示，特朗普的领导风格不是该党在即将到来的白宫竞选中所需要的。
“我认为我们会有更好的选择，”彭斯在南卡罗来纳州接受美联社采访时表示。“我相信，除了唐纳德·特朗普，没有人能在2016年击败希拉里·克林顿，但我认为我们生活在一个不同的时代，它需要不同的领导力。”
自2021年1月6日特朗普的支持者暴力袭击美国国会大厦以来，彭斯和特朗普一直疏远，试图阻止国会对民主党人的认证乔·拜登胜利了。
预计共和党人将在参加初选辩论的正式标准中包括承诺支持最终的共和党提名人。
彭斯在离任后第九次前往提前投票州，参加了与北查尔斯顿官员的警务圆桌会议。他计划晚些时候会见格林维尔的牧师，并在鲍勃·琼斯大学主持一场关于他新书的讲座。
彭斯表示，他将在“春天”做出关于2024年的决定。川普和前南卡罗莱纳州州长妮基·黑利已经开始角逐。其他可能加入他们的人包括佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯和南卡罗来纳州参议员蒂姆·斯科特。
“美国人民希望我们回到特朗普-彭斯政府的政策，但我认为他们希望看到更多反映美国人民性格的领导力:即美国人每天相互展示的原则和文明，”彭斯说。“因此，如果我们加入战斗，我们将提供这种领导。”
彭斯被问及他是否正在证明，对于支持特朗普政府政策但现在不支持特朗普的共和党选民来说，他是最佳选择。彭斯没有直接回答。
“我向你保证，如果我成为美国总统候选人，我会是我，”彭斯说。“我将以我一直渴望的方式来做这一切，那就是对人们表示尊重，甚至是对不同意见的尊重，我认为美国人民每天都在相互尊重。
他说:“我们必须让政府再次像我们的人民一样好，我相信，不久的将来，我们会做到的。”
Pence won’t say whether he'd support Trump as 2024 nominee
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. --Former Vice President Mike Pence declined to say Thursday whether he would backDonald Trumpif his former boss were to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.
Pence, widely expected to seek the nomination himself, suggested that Trump's leadership style isn’t what the party needs in the upcoming White House race.
“I think we'll have better choices,” Pence told The Associated Press in an interview in South Carolina. “I'm persuaded that no one could have defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 except Donald Trump, but I think we live in a different time and it calls for different leadership.”
Pence and Trump have been estranged since the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by Trump’s supporters in an attempt to stop the congressional certification of DemocratJoe Biden’s victory.
Republicans are expected to include a pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee among formal criteria for participation in primary debates.
Pence, on his ninth trip to the early-voting state since leaving office, participated in a policing roundtable with officials in North Charleston. He planned to meet later with pastors in Greenville and host a talk about his latest book at Bob Jones University.
Pence said he would make a decision about 2024 "by the spring.” Already in the race are Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Others who could join them include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
“The American people want us to return to the policies of the Trump-Pence administration, but I think they want to see leadership that reflects more of the character of the American people: namely the commitment to principle and the civility that Americans show each other every day,” Pence said. "And so, if we enter the fray, we will offer that kind of leadership.”
Pence was asked whether he was making the case that he was the best choice for Republican voters who supported Trump administration policies but not Trump now. Pence didn't answer directly.
“I promise you, if I become a candidate for president of the United States, I'll be me," Pence said. "I will do it all in a way that I've always aspired to do, and that is show the kind of respect to people, even of differing opinions, that I think the American people show each other every day.
“We've just got to have government as good as our people again, and I'm confident that, someday soon, we will,” he said.
