'Walking away from strong American leadership': Pence says Trump 'abandoned' conservatism

Former Vice President Mike Pence broke his general campaign silence in an interview with Lyndsay Keith on Dr. Phil McGraw's "Merit Street Media" platform, to bemoan how former President Donald Trump has betrayed many principles that initially united them on the 2016 ticket, The Atlantic reported Thursday.

Pence, who himself ran unsuccessfully for president in the 2024 primary, has been estranged from Trump ever since a mob supporting the former president rioted at the Capitol and called for his lynching over Pence's refusal to go along with a far-right scheme to block the certification of the electoral count.

A lifelong social ultra-conservative, Pence has no inclination to back Vice President Kamala Harris either — and is instead sitting out the cycle and keeping his ultimate vote confidential.

However, talking to Keith in this rare interview, Pence said Trump turned his back on many of the principles they once ran on and accomplished in office.

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“I’ve literally seen him walking away from strong American leadership on the world stage," said Pence. "I’ve seen him marginalize the right to life, and even parrot Democrats when it comes to the crisis facing our children and grandchildren in the National Debt.”

Trump was responsible for appointing three of the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and still boasts about doing so. In recent months, fearing polling backlash from women, he has tried to publicly soften from an absolutist anti-abortion stance, criticizing states that passed near-total six-week abortion bans — but not endorsing any specific plan to relax those restrictions.

Former Pence Chief of Staff Marc Short echoed this sentiment to The Atlantic: “When you now see Trump separating from Pence, it’s not just [Trump] going back to being pro-abortion. It’s Trump moving away from the free-trader Mike Pence, who is also anti-tax and anti-tariff, and who would not abandon Ukraine.”

Trump's replacement running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, has taken harder lines on Trump loyalty, making clear that he would have blocked the certification where Pence did not.