Mike Pence, Donald J. Trump’s vice president, indicated on Friday that he would not fall into line behind the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, as some of Mr. Trump’s other previous rivals, including Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott, have done.
When asked whether he would endorse Mr. Trump now that the former president had clinched the party’s nomination, Mr. Pence said on Fox News that he “could not in good conscience” support him.
“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” he told Martha MacCallum on her show “The Story.”
The former vice president declined to say whether he would vote for Mr. Trump in the November election, but answered, “I would never vote for Joe Biden.” He also ruled out running for president as a third-party or independent candidate, saying he remained a Republican.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
In a statement later on Friday, Mr. Pence said he was honored to have served with Mr. Trump but echoed several of his criticisms from his interview on Fox News. “Sadly, over the past few years, I have seen the former president turn away from our conservative agenda,” he said.
In his less than five months as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. Pence struggled to gain traction with voters who remained very loyal to Mr. Trump.
He repeatedly rebuked Mr. Trump for his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol while at the same time seeking to take credit for the Trump-Pence administration’s record in areas including the economy and judicial appointments.
Mr. Pence incurred the wrath of Mr. Trump and a mob of his supporters when he refused to carry out Mr. Trump’s demand that he block the certification of the 2020 election results.
“During my presidential campaign, I made it clear that there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues, and not just our difference on my constitutional duties that I exercised on January the 6th,” he said in the interview on Fox News.
Mr. Pence said he was disappointed that Mr. Trump was no longer focused on reducing the national debt or on other issues that are important to conservatives.
“As I have watched his candidacy unfold, I’ve seen him walking away from our commitment to confronting the national debt,” he said in the interview. “I’ve seen him starting to shy away from a commitment to the sanctity of human life and, this last week, his reversal on getting tough on China and supporting our administration’s effort to force a sale of ByteDance TikTok application.”
