CINCINNATI — Former Vice President Mike Pence subtly defended former President Donald Trump in an interview Tuesday, hours after a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
“I would tell you, in my 4½ years serving alongside the president, I never heard or witnessed behavior of that nature,” he said.
Pence was in Cincinnati to speak at a gala for the Center for Christian Virtue.
The decision to avoid criticizing Trump was stark at a moment when Pence is weighing whether to challenge his former boss for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
But Pence sidestepped the question of whether the jury’s verdict affects his view of Trump’s fitness for the presidency.
“I think that’s a question for the American people,” Pence said. “I’m sure the president will defend himself in that matter.”
He added his prediction that those very voters would pay little attention to what he cast as a distraction from their daily lives.
“It’s just one more instance where — at a time when American families are struggling, when our economy is hurting, when the world seems to become a more dangerous place almost every day — [there's] just one more story focusing on my former running mate that I know is a great fascination to members of the national media, but I just don’t think is where the American people are focused.”
Trump is the front-runner for the nomination, far outpacing other Republican hopefuls — both announced and unannounced — in national polling. Pence said Tuesday that he will announce whether he is running in the coming weeks.
