Donald Trump and Mike Pence both pulled into in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday — but they didn’t sit down to reminisce about old times.
The two are seen as 2024 presidential rivals with Trump still beating all Republicans, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis the only one within striking distance. That’s at least according to a recent poll out of New Hampshire this summer.
Trump returned to Washington for the first time Tuesday since begrudgingly handing over the keys to the Oval Office to President Joe Biden on Jan. 20, 2021. He spoke in the afternoon at the America First Agenda Summit.
“It was a catastrophe that election. A disgrace to our country,” Trump said about 2020 according to the Associated Press. “We may just have to do it again.”
He was referring to the 2020 vote and his 2024 ambitions.
Pence addressed Young America’s Foundation’s National Conservative Student Conference in the morning, where he pitched ahead to the next election.
“Some people may choose to focus on the past, but elections are about the future,” he said, the New York Times reported, adding that when he was asked about Trump he said: “I don’t know that our movement is that divided — I don’t know that the president and I differ on issues, but we may differ on focus.”
Pollster John Zogby told the Herald it’s too soon to rate the GOP candidates; that will come this fall after the midterm elections.
“Trump has the highest name recognition and any poll now will simply be anti-Trump or that he’s winning and that’s all too early. We need to see what his impact will be come November,” said the pollster. “In December and January we’ll have a real reading of where the GOP race stands.”
Their separate speeches come amid news that Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, testified before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Short was at the Capitol that day as Pence fled an angry mob of rioters who called for his hanging after Trump wrongly insisted Pence had the power to overturn the election results.
A Real Clear Politics average of various national polls shows Trump would beat Biden 44.5% to 42.5% if the election were held today.
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