Donald Trump and his former Vice President Mike Pence, two likely Republican candidates for the 2024 US presidential election, held rival rallies in Arizona on Friday.
The couple, whose successful 2016 campaign brought the Republican billionaire to the White House, are now estranged after Mike Pence refused to block the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, and support rival candidates for the governorship of this state in the south. west of the United States.
This distance duel in Arizona -Mike Pence was in the capital Phoenix to support Karrin Taylor Robson, Donald Trump in Prescott Valley to support Kari Lake- occurred the day after the revelations about the situation of the former vice president during the assault on Capitol Hill in Washington on January 6, 2021.
Scrambled after the 2020 presidential election
Mike Pence, who was there to oversee the certification of the election results, had to go into hiding to escape rioters like many parliamentarians on both sides.
His bodyguards “began to fear for their own lives” and “to say goodbye to their families,” a White House official told the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 incident on condition of anonymity.
Donald Trump had long refused to ask his supporters to leave the Congress building and even criticized his vice president in a tweet for not wanting to block the certification, fueling protesters’ grievances.
different supports
After keeping the crowd waiting for more than two hours, he began his Friday speech by talking about immigration, a major campaign issue in Arizona, a state that shares a long strip of border with Mexico.
Before quickly leaning into the 2020 election: “The elections were rigged and stolen and our country is now systematically destroyed because of it,” he launched into a crowd that lit up in response.
“Arizona finally has a chance to have a SUPER Governor. Vote for Kari Lake,” Donald Trump wrote Thursday on his Truth Social network. For his part, Mike Pence, who had tweeted upstream that he was “waiting to campaign for the next Governor of Arizona @Karrin4Arizona,” spoke for about twenty minutes in front of an audience seated in a warehouse.
Candidates for the next elections?
Mike Pence hailed the achievements of “four years of the Trump-Pence administration,” briefly criticizing the former presidential-endorsed candidate for her previous support of Democrats and her early opposition to Donald Trump.
“Arizona Republicans don’t need a governor who has supported Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton,” said Mike Pence, who also believed, referring to Donald Trump’s accusations about the 2020 election, that “if the Republican Party lets consume past grudges, we are going to lose”.
Donald Trump, who maintains a tight control over the Republican Party, is increasingly openly flirting with the idea of a presidential candidacy in 2024. Mike Pence is increasing his speeches at conferences or appearances with local election candidates. He does not rule out running against his former running mate, assuring that he prays about the issue and that he and his wife Karen will go “wherever they call us.”
Source: BFM TV
