Former US president Donald Trump and his former vice president, Mike Pence, who went from White House partners to bitter rivals, on Friday held dueling rallies in Arizona, where an upcoming Republican primary election offers an early test of their potential 2024 showdown.
The convergence of campaign events came a day after a congressional hearing on the US Capitol assault, in which a White House security official said members of Pence’s Secret Service detail feared they would die as rioters stormed the building.
Trump, who like Pence is considering running for president in 2024, has savaged his former vice president for what he describes as a failure to block the certification of the 2020 election results and send the process back to the US states.
Photo: Reuters
Such a plan had been cooked up by Trump aides who supported his discredited theory that the election was stolen, but Pence ultimately decided that the action would be illegal.
During the insurrection on Jan. 6 last year, Trump attacked Pence on Twitter, saying he “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country.”
Administration officials testified at Thursday’s hearing that the social media post poured fuel on the fire and turned rioters against the vice president.
Trump’s gathering on Friday in the central Arizona town of Prescott Valley was part of a series of “Save America” rallies he has held to boost his favored candidates ahead of Republican primary elections.
Trump was campaigning for Kari Lake, a far-right gubernatorial candidate who supports his false claim that the election was stolen.
Lake, a former TV news host, took the stage in the crowded stadium first, saying that in Arizona, “we will no longer accept corruptness, and I know for a fact we will no longer accept rigged elections.”
The former president, leaving the crowd to wait more than two hours, began his speech by focusing on immigration — a major campaign topic in the state which shares a large border with Mexico.
However, it did not take long before he turned his attention to the 2020 election.
“The election was rigged and stolen and now our country is being systematically destroyed because of it,” he shouted, with the crowd roaring in response.
Pence made stops in Phoenix and southern Arizona for governor-hopeful Karrin Taylor Robson, a more traditional Republican than Lake who also has the backing of the state’s term-limited governor.
With his rivalry with Trump intensifying, Pence has positioned himself as a principled, religious conservative, but has declined to attack Trump directly.
In a 20-minute speech before a seated warehouse crowd on Friday, he lauded policy accomplishments during the “four years of the Trump-Pence administration,” and only took a brief swipe at Lake, criticizing her previous support of Democrats and initial opposition to Trump.
“Arizona Republicans don’t need a governor that supported [former US president] Barack Obama and [former US secretary of state] Hillary Clinton,” he said.
Later though, he issued an indirect condemnation of Trump and Lake’s fixation on the 2020 election.
“Democrats would love nothing more than for Republicans to take our eye off the ball and focus on days gone by,” he wrote on Twitter. “If the Republican Party allows itself to become consumed by yesterday’s grievances, we will lose.”
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