Donald Trump And Mike Pence Getting Ready For 2024 Presidential Run

It seems like former Vice President Mike Pence is doing everything to counter former President Donald Trump.

According to The Washington Post, while the Jan. 6 committee is focusing on Pence’s role in certifying Biden’s win, the former Vice President is making moves toward a campaign for the White House.

Pence, who was pressured by Trump to unilaterally overturn the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, spoke at a National Republican Congressional Committee dinner for its “Young Guns” candidate program on Tuesday. The following day, he was welcomed on Capitol Hill by the Republican Study Committee. It is largest conservative caucus in the House, which Pence chaired from 2005 to 2006.

These put lawmakers at the crux of tensions between Trump and his former deputy. It forecasts a Grand Old Party reckoning on Trump’s role in the party moving forward as both he and Pence eye 2024 Presidential Run, according to The Hill.

Now, Pence and Trump will hold dueling events in Arizona on Friday. They will stump for rival candidates who offer different visions of the Republican Party in a critical battleground state, reported the Associated Press. Later, they will deliver major speeches on the same day in Washington, D.C. These mark a more confrontational phase in the relationship between the former running mates and one-time close confidantes. They could find themselves competing against one another in the 2024 GOP presidential primary if they both decide to run.

Scott Jennings, a longtime party strategist, thinks this is a continuation of the larger message that "Pence is trying to embody here, which is the Republican Party should look to the future." He shared that this is going to be the existential question for the "Republican Party: Are we going to listen to a slightly different view than Donald Trump’s? Right now, the standard-bearer for this is Mike Pence.”

Pence had spent his four years in the White House as Trump’s most loyal defender, but the former President turned on him. It happened when Pence refused to go along with his unconstitutional efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It put Pence in the crosshairs of a violent riot on Jan. 6 last year.

Pence has repeatedly defended his actions on the day of the riot. He is taking a more active effort to shape the future of the party. This week, he endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson in Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial primary. That means he is pitting himself against Trump, who has endorsed Kari Lake. She is a former newscaster who has embraced Trump’s election lies.