Kellyanne Conway: Trump should think about supporting a Pence 2024 bid if he doesn’t run

Former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said that if former President Trump chooses not to run in the 2024 presidential election, he should put his support behind his former vice president, Mike Pence.

In an appearance on The Wall Street Journal’s “Free Expression” podcast published Tuesday, Conway told host Gerard Baker that Trump is “absolutely the overwhelming prohibitive favorite” if he decides to run for president.

Trump’s former campaign manager added that it’s mainly because of his accomplishments and his “fantastic” job as president.

“The Trump/Pence accomplishments are remarkable, and we can go through them. People don’t seem to want to, but if he runs for president, he’ll be talking about that. If Mike Pence runs for president instead of Donald Trump, if Donald Trump says no, he’ll be talking about the Trump-Pence accomplishments,” Conway added.

Conway said that voters already know what happened regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, and despite that, “he’s beating Biden in these polls.”

“He’s beating all other Republican candidates among Republican primary voters,” she added.

Conway said that the former president “should” support his vice president when asked if Trump would support Pence if he chooses not to run.

She added that if Trump decides not to run, he should think “very deeply about supporting his vice president, because they were a magical, magnificent, marvelous team.”

Conway also refuted reports that the former president stood by as Jan. 6 rioters called to “hang Mike Pence” after he refused to support efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

“I think it’s really unfair for people to repeat that if he’s denied it, and yet, just gloss right past four years worth of accomplishments that they did together.”

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified during a hearing of the Jan. 6 House Committee last month that then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows described a conversation with the president on the day of the Capitol riot where he said “Mike deserves it.” 

Trump, however, pushed back on these claims on his social media app Truth Social: “I NEVER SAID, ’MIKE PENCE DESERVES IT (to be hung). Another made up statement by a third rate social climber!”

Conway further blasted the House Jan. 6 Committee hearings and said that she didn’t think it was “particularly compelling.”

The former Trump official said she had questions about the veracity of the former White House aide’s testimony, because Hutchinson kept saying “the gist of it was,” or “they said something like.”

“That would never be able to pass in a court of law,” she added.