Former Vice President Mike Pence wants to be a “constructive force for the conservative agenda” during President Trump’s second term because he is one of the few Republicans who is ready to formally challenge Trump.
Even though Pence and Trump had a public fight after the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he said he would support the new Trump administration on issues he agreed with and disagreed with on others.
“Well, for me, it’s always principles first. It’s not personal,” Pence said in a recent interview.
Advancing American Freedom, Pence’s political action committee, spent almost $1 million on ads against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s new Health and Human Services Secretary.
The former vice president said that people who work for him and him got “a lot of quiet encouragement” to stand up against Kennedy. As Pence put it, the “nomination of an abortion rights supporter to be secretary of HHS is a dramatic departure from 50 years of strong pro-life leadership at HHS under Republican administrations.” He felt he had to speak out against this.
