Inside Mike Pence's change of heart

How did the rift between Trump and Pence become so wide?

Mike Pence
Mike Pence gave brief remarks about former president Donald Trump
(Image credit: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

Former Vice President Mike Pence this week said he wouldn't rule out testifying against Donald Trump in the former president's criminal case over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. Pence, a long-shot contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination Trump is expected to win, said Trump's effort to pressure him into blocking the certification of the election result on Jan. 6, 2021, had forced him to choose between Trump and the Constitution.

The comments marked Pence's marked his clearest break yet with his former boss, and Trump wasn't pleased. In a social media post, Trump said Pence was "delusional" and had "gone to the Dark Side." A Trump campaign spokesperson mockingly called Pence "Joe Biden's biggest cheerleader." How did the rift between Trump and Pence become so wide?

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.