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Former Vice President Mike Pence says he’s ready for the first public debate with his former boss, Donald Trump, should the former president have the “courage to show up,” said Pence communications adviser Devin O’Malley.
“We’re ready,” Marc Short, Pence’s senior adviser, told Politico. “It’s let’s-get-it-on time. We’ve been waiting for this for a while.”
Trump has threatened to skip the first GOP presidential primary debate that Fox News is hosting in Milwaukee in less than a week, repeatedly pointing to his commanding lead in the polls as one reason he is hedging on sharing the stage with his Republican challengers.
Pence has spoken out against Trump since the former president was indicted on 13 counts related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, telling a large gathering of state lawmakers meeting in Indianapolis at the National Conference of State Legislatures that “despite what the former president and his allies have said for now more than 2 1/2 years and continue to insist … the Georgia election was not stolen, and I had no right to overturn the election on Jan. 6.”
Pointing to his former running mate, Pence said, “No one is above the law.
“And the president and all those implicated are entitled to the presumption of innocence,” he added. “And I’ll always believe by God’s grace, I did my duty that day to see to the peaceful transfer of power under the Constitution of the United States and the laws of this country.”
O’Malley in an earlier statement questioned whether Trump had “the courage to show up,” to the debate, a reference to Trump’s tweet on Jan. 6, 2021, telling Pence that it was “a time for extreme courage.”
On Wednesday, Pence said of Trump, “I hope he comes.”
“My hope in that debate is that people may be able to get to know me a little bit better,” he added.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.