CNN town hall with Mike Pence

Former Vice President Mike Pence criticized his former boss President Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a CNN town hall on Wednesday night.

Pence appeared at the town hall hosted by CNN’s Dana Bash at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, hours after he officially launched his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination from the same state.

Here are four moments Pence separated himself from Trump:

Vladimir Putin and Russia’s war in Ukraine: One of Pence’s sharpest criticisms of Trump came when he was asked about the United States’ role in helping Ukraine to repel Russia’s invasion. After arguing that the US should accelerate its support for the Ukrainian military, Pence pointed to Trump’s description of Putin in a February 2022 radio interview as a “genius” for his invasion of Ukraine. “I know the difference between a genius and a war criminal, and I know who needs to win the war in Ukraine,” Pence said.

January 6 insurrection: Pence broke with Trump over the legal fates of those who rioted at the US Capitol on January 6 – and have since faced criminal charges and convictions. Trump said he would consider pardoning many of those rioters, who he said were being treated “very unfairly.” Pence, though, said the United States “cannot ever allow what happened on January 6 to happen again in the heart of our democracy.” “I have no interest or no intention of pardoning those that assaulted police officers or vandalized our Capitol. They need to answer to the law,” he said.

Social Security: Pence said Social Security and Medicare need to be reformed, saying both programs are tracking toward bankruptcy in the next five or 10 years. “It is also disappointing to me that Donald Trump’s position on entitlement reform is identical to Joe Biden’s. I mean, their policy is insolvency,” he said.

Immigration: Pence said he would not bring back his administration’s controversial family separation policy to manage migrants at the US-Mexico border — breaking with Trump’s comments during the CNN town hall last month. The “zero tolerance” policy encapsulated the lengths Trump’s administration was willing to go to deter migrants from coming to the United States, and Trump said it remained a strong deterrent. “When you say to a family that if you come, we’re going to break you up, they don’t come,” Trump said during the town hall.

And here are other key takeaways from the town hall:

Justice Department investigations: Pence urged the Justice Department not to indict his onetime boss, saying such an indictment would fuel division inside the country and “send a terrible message to the wider world.” While Pence said that “no one is above the law,” he said the DOJ could resolve its investigation into Trump’s potential mishandling of classified documents without resorting to an indictment, just as the department informed Pence’s attorney last week that there would be no charges brought in the case of the classified documents discovered in his home.

Transgender children: Pence repeatedly highlighted his support for “parents’ rights,” especially when it comes to schools. But he said the judgment of those same parents should not apply to situations when a minor is seeking gender transition care. “I strongly support state legislation, including, as we did in Indiana, that bans all gender transition, chemical or surgical procedures, under the age of 18,” he said – even when parents support their child’s decision to go forward.

Pro-life stance on abortion: Pence made clear he would not deviate from his anti-abortion position, saying, “We will not rest or relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law in every state in the country” and that he does not apologize for being pro-life. On the question of a federal ban on the procedure, Pence said he supported exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. He also offered qualified support for social spending programs to help support newborns and new parents but stopped short of specifically endorsing paid family leave for all Americans or subsidized child care.

Read more takeaways here.

Former Vice President Mike Pence took questions from voters in Iowa on Wednesday night during a CNN town hall.

Here are some of the claims he made:

Inflation: Pence claimed at the town hall that “families are struggling right now with record inflation.” At two other moments, he claimed, in present tense, that inflation is “at a 40-year high.”

Facts First: Pence’s claim that there is “record inflation” is false. His claims that inflation is “at a 40-year high” are, at best, out of date.

The US inflation rate hit a 40-year high in June 2022, 9.1%, but that was not close to the all-time record high of 23.7%, set in 1920. And that 9.1% rate last June was not even close to the record for the modern era, 14.8% in 1980.

In addition, the current inflation rate is nowhere near that 40-year high from mid-2022. After hitting 9.1% in June 2022, the inflation rate has fallen for 10 straight months. The most recent available rate, for April, was 4.9%.

From CNN’s Daniel Dale

Aid to Ukraine: Pence said that he and Trump “ended what was a ban during the Obama-Biden administration on any military resources at all” to Ukraine, whereas the Obama-Biden administration was providing “military meals and blankets.”

“We provided javelin missiles — all they were providing was military meals and blankets. We corrected that and Ukraine was better suited to be able to deal with this Russian invasion,” Pence said.

Facts First: This is not true, and reminiscent of comments frequently made by Trump, who has said that the Obama administration was only providing Ukraine “pillows and sheets.”

While it’s true that the Obama administration declined to provide weapons to Ukraine, it provided more than $600 million in security assistance to Ukraine between 2014 and 2016 that involved far more than meals and blankets (or pillows and sheets). The aid included counter-artillery and counter-mortar radars, armored Humvees, tactical drones, night vision devices and medical supplies.

From CNN’s Haley Britzky

Family separation at the border: Pence was asked about the Trump administration’s brief but controversial family separation policy, which triggered a crisis in spring 2018 when immigration officials separated thousands of children from their parents after they illegally crossed the US-Mexico border. Pence criticized the policy and – breaking from Trump – said he wouldn’t bring it back. But he also blamed Obama for its creation.

“The family separation policy actually began under the Obama administration,” Pence said.

Facts First: That’s not true at all. Yes, some families were separated under Obama, but that was the rare exception and not the rule. Trump changed things in 2018 and turned family separation into the blanket policy, and only relented amid a furious public outcry and with intervention looming from federal judges.

CNN previously debunked this claim when Trump repeatedly made similar comments during his tenure.

In short, during the Obama years, children were occasionally separated from their parents in rare situations, like if the adults were caught with drugs or there was a potential human trafficking situation.

But Trump dramatically changed things in spring 2018. He imposed a “zero tolerance” policy, where every adult border-crosser would be criminally prosecuted. With the adults being sent to jail, the children were separated from them and sent to detention centers run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

That systematic family separation absolutely did not begin under Obama, as Pence claimed Wednesday night. More than 3,900 children were ultimately separated under Trump, according to federal data.

From CNN’s Marshall Cohen

Read more fact checks here.

Former Vice President Mike Pence took the stage on Wednesday night for a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa.

He criticized his former boss, Donald Trump, for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

See photos from the evening inside Grand View University:

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Social Security and Medicare need to be reformed, saying both programs are tracking toward bankruptcy in the next five or 10 years.

“It is also disappointing to me that Donald Trump’s position on entitlement reform is identical to Joe Biden’s. I mean, their policy is insolvency,” Pence said during CNN’s town hall.
“I think we’ve got a moral obligation to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security and Medicare, and that means saying to Americans over the age of 40, we’re going to keep the system that we have, but Americans under the age of 40, we got to work on the kind of reforms that will lessen the burden of debt and change these New Deal programs into a better deal for younger Americans,” he said to applause.

Pence declined to answer whether he would raise the retirement age.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, when asked about the wave of mass shootings in the US, said he believed the rapid implementation of capital punishment for shooters will deter future incidents.

“We’ve got to get back to justice in this country that is swift and certain,” Pence told CNN’s Dana Bash at Wednesday night’s town hall.

In response to a question about whether he believes in a national “red flag” law, he said: “We’ve got to be very cautious.”

“Red flag” laws, found in more than a dozen states, are also known as Extreme Risk Protection Order laws – and they allow courts to temporarily seize firearms from anyone believed to be a danger to themselves or others.

“I think we got to make sure and protect the due process rights of Americans,” he said, referring to the laws. “We cannot allow laws like that or other laws like that or other laws to erode the constitutional right to keep and bear arms in this country.”

Some background: There have been more than 250 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

President Joe Biden has taken more than 20 executive actions on guns since taking office, including regulating the use of “ghost guns” and sales of stabilizing braces that effectively turn pistols into rifles. He also signed a bipartisan bill in 2022 which expands background checks and provides federal funding for so-called “red flag laws” – although it failed to ban any weapons and fell far short of what Biden and his party had advocated for.

White House officials have been sober about the political realities Democrats face with the current makeup of Congress, where Republicans in control of the House have rejected Biden’s calls for an assault weapons ban. Even when both chambers of Congress were controlled by Democrats during the first two years of Biden’s term, an assault weapon ban gained little traction, in part because of a 60-vote threshold necessary for passage.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said that he hopes to bring back decency and civility into politics when asked how he plans to unite Americans.

“You know, I think our politics are more divided than ever before — in my lifetime. But I’m not convinced that the American people are as divided as our politics,” Pence said.

Pence reflected on his relationship with the late Civil Rights icon John Lewis and how despite their differences they were able to get along and found common ground in their Christian faith.

“But John and I, again, never agreed on much. But we could always talk. And I think that’s what we have to get back to. When you think about the challenges we’re facing in America, I just think we’ve got to get back to the kind of politics that reflects the decency and civility that the American people show each other every day. And I believe we will. And I hope to be part of it,” he said.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said he would “take a step back” from the approach of the Trump administration’s landmark sentencing reform bill, the First Step Act.

“I frankly think we need to take a step back from the approach of the First Step Act. We need to get serious and tough on violent crime and we need to give our cities and our states the resources to restore law and order to our streets. And I promise you, we’ll do that, if I’m your president,” Pence told Dana Bash in CNN’s town hall in Des Moines, Iowa.

Under the First Step Act, thousands of federal inmates, most of them serving sentences for drug offense and weapons charges, were released from prison early either for good behavior or rehabilitation programs. The legislation also eased mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offenders.

Pence was asked about 2024 rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ promise to repeal the First Step Act if elected president.

Pence again conceded that he would take a different approach than the First Step Act and said, “We ought to be thinking about how we make penalties tougher on people that are victimizing families in this country.”

Aligning with DeSantis, Pence also added that he would not defund the police, a popular sentiment that arose in 2020.

Asked repeatedly how he could commit to supporting former President Donald Trump if he were the GOP nominee for president, Mike Pence said Wednesday night he does not think Trump will be the Republican nominee and that the people of Iowa will recognize that “different times call for different leadership.”

Pence once again said anyone who holds the office of president should never put themselves above the Constitution, referring to Trump pressuring him to overturn the 2020 election results.

“Anyone who puts themselves above the Constitution should never be president in the first place. And anyone who asks anyone else to put themselves over the Constitution should never be president again,” Pence said to CNN’s Dana Bash.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said that people’s concerns with the Biden-Harris administration will help him reach out to “Trump or nothing voters.”

Jesse Johnson, an Iowa Republican caucus voter, asked Pence how he plans on reaching “hardcore Trump or nothing Republican voters.”

Pence responded: “I think Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are going to be the great unifiers of the Republican party.”

He went on to say that he does not worry about the unity of the party and claimed that everywhere he goes he hears how people are “deeply concerned” in the current administration’s policies.

He added, when Republican voters play their role in the primaries, “I’m confident that whoever our standard bearer is, — and I hope it’s me — is going to be supported by Republicans and independents and many Democrats around the country, who know we can do better, and we can bring this country back,” Pence said.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said restoring the level of trust of government agencies “begins with recognizing that personnel is policy” and the people you surround yourself with define the capacity to serve and advance policies. 

“While we have many problems in government. This is still a great nation with great people. We just need government as good as our people again,” he said.

Pence said based on his experiences working as a congressman, governor and vice president, he would know what to do and who to do it with to put this country back on track.

“And I promise you, if you give me the privilege to service as president of the United States, we’ll assemble a team you’ll be proud of on day one,” Pence said.

Former Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged that the climate is changing, but said he does not believe the change to be dramatic.

“Let me just say that clearly the climate is changing,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash when asked if the climate crisis would be a top priority for him. “Not as dramatically as the radical environmentalists like to present, but there’s change.”

He said there will be “modest changes in temperature” over the next century and proposed “American innovation” as an approach in dealing with the rising temperatures.

“I really do believe that we’ve got to make sure that whatever we do with regard to being stewards of the land and air and water cannot be done in a way that puts an undue burden on American families or American businesses,” Pence said. “We’ve got to make sure that whatever we do doesn’t disadvantage the United States in competing on the world stage.”

Pence also called for better forest management as ongoing smoke from Canadian wildfires has more than 75 million Americans under air quality alerts.

Former Vice President Mike Pence addressed transgender transition procedures during tonight’s CNN town hall and said that he believes individuals should wait until adulthood for permanent treatments.

“I think, at minimum, it is proper for state governments and state officials to simply say: However adults want to live, they can live, but for children, we’re going to protect kids from the radical gender ideology and say no chemical or surgical gender transition before you’re 18,” he said.

Pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash about how he would respond on a human level to a child or a teen who feels targeted by his view, Pence responded, “I would tell them that I love everybody. I’d put my arm around them. And their parents. But before they had a chemical or surgical procedure, I would say wait. Just wait.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday night he supports US aid to Ukraine and called out former President Donald Trump for his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I know that some in this debate have called the war in Ukraine a territorial dispute. It’s not, it was a Russian invasion, an unprovoked Russian invasion. And I believe the United States of America needs to continue to provide the courageous soldiers in Ukraine with the resources they need to repel that Russian invasion and restore their territorial integrity,” he said in response to a question from Michael Banks, a Republican voter.

Pence’s remarks put him in stark contrast with Trump, who — during his town hall — would not say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war. The former president glossed over the question when asked in May.

“I want everybody to stop dying. They’re dying. Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying,” Trump said at CNN’s town hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “And I’ll have that done in 24 hours.”

Pence, for his part, took a defiant tone about Russia and Putin, saying he has spoken to the Russian leader, looked him in the eye and told him things he did not want to hear.

“Anybody that thinks Vladimir Putin will stop if he overruns Ukraine has what we say back in Indiana ‘another thing coming.’ He has no intention of stopping. He’s made it clear that he wants to recreate that old Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe,” he said.

Pence then admonished Trump for calling Putin a genius in February on a conservative radio show.

“Well, and frankly, when Vladimir Putin rolled into Ukraine, the former president called him a genius. I know the difference between a genius and a war criminal, and I know who needs to win in the war in Ukraine, and it’s the people fighting for their freedom and fighting to restore their national sovereignty in Ukraine. And America, it’s not our war, but freedom is our fight, and we need to give the people of Ukraine the ability to fight and defend their territory,” Pence said.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said he would not bring back his administration’s controversial family separation policy to manage migrants at the US-Mexico border.

Pence was asked by CNN’s Dana Bash about former President Donald Trump’s answer to a question about the issue at a previous CNN town hall. Bash said that Trump asserted “your administration’s family separation policy was an effective deterrent and refused to rule out bringing it back as president. Would you bring it back?”

“No,” Pence said.

This is different from Trump’s position that he would return the separation policy if he was elected president again.

“When you say to a family that if you come, we’re going to break you up, they don’t come,” Trump said. His comments came just before Title 42, the Trump-era pandemic public health restriction that became a key tool officials used to expel migrants at the US-Mexico border, was expiring.

However, Pence said Title 42 should be reinstated.

“We got to stop putting band-aids on the problem. We got to stop having small, little fixes and programs. We’ve got to secure our border. We’ve got to finish that wall. We’ve got to put Remain in Mexico policy back into effect, Title 42. We’ve got to end illegal immigration and asylum abuse like we did in our administration,” Pence said.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said that if elected president, he would marshal Congress to build a military to specifically respond to provocations by China.

Asked by CNN’s Dana Bash about how a Pence administration would deal with concerning military encounters with China, the former vice president responded:

“Now more than ever, we need a president who will marshal the support of the Congress and of the American people to build a military fitted to the times to send a deafening message to China and any other power in the world that the United States of America will defend our interests and defend our allies and have the ability to do it.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence said he would support a federal ban on the Chinese- owned app TikTok and said “everything TikTok gets, the Chinese communist government has access to.”

“I think TikTok is incompatible with both the privacy and the security of the United States of America,” he said. “And it shouldn’t just be banned from our government institutions. It should be banned from this country, period, full stop.”

Vice President Mike Pence reaffirmed his stance as pro-life and pointed to initiatives and legislation throughout his career that advanced that position.

He said that the first time he ran for Congress 20 years ago, his pro-life stance was central to his motivation to go to Washington

“All my time in Congress, I stood for the right the life. I authored the first legislation to defund Planned Parenthood,” he said to applause from the audience.

When he was governor of Indiana, Pence said that while continuing to uphold his pro-life beliefs, his administration also promoted adoption reform. 

“I believe that if you’re going to be pro-life you need to be pro-adoption,” Pence said.

Some background: Pence has long charted a political identity with anti-abortion advocacy at its core since his days as a conservative congressman from Indiana. Just weeks after the Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer, the former vice president traveled to South Carolina to deliver a speech outlining a Republican policy blueprint for “post-Roe America.”

He and his wife Karen Pence have raised funds for crisis pregnancy centers and in keynote remarks at a gala for Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America in September. Pence also appeared to endorse Republican efforts to shepherd a national abortion ban through Congress.

At a CNN town hall in November, Pence praised the Dobbs decision, saying it gave “the American people a new beginning for life.” While suggesting that laws around abortion had been “returned to the states and the American people, where it belongs,” Pence also said he remains hopeful that all 50 states will eventually “stand for the sanctity of life.”

Pence has also been more willing than his 2024 rivals to embrace a national effort to outlaw abortion. He said on New Hampshire’s WMUR last month that he would “look for ways to advance the sanctity of life at the national level.”

The former vice president also touted his hand in appointing pro-life judges during his time serving in the Trump administration, namely the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn federal abortion protections in Roe v. Wade.

When asked about investigations into former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence said “no one is above the law” but indicting a former president sends a terrible message to the world and would “be terribly divisive to the country.” 

“We’re the symbol of justice in the world. And the serious matter, which has already happened once in New York, of indicting a former president in the United States sends a terrible message to the world,” Pence said in CNN’s town hall about the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

CNN’s Dana Bash pressed Pence on whether that means he believes investigators shouldn’t move forward with an indictment even if they believe Trump committed a crime.

Pence replied that “no one’s above the law” and added “I would just hope that there would be a way for them to move forward without the dramatic and drastic and divisive step of indicting a former president of the United States.”

Pence also said it would “be terribly divisive to the country” if Trump were to be indicted by federal investigators over possible obstruction of justice and mishandling of classified documents. 

“This kind of action by the Department of Justice I think would only fuel further division in the country,” Pence said. He added later, “I hope the DOJ thinks better of it and resolves these issues without an indictment.”

CNN reported earlier Wednesday that the Justice Department recently informed Trump’s legal team that he is a target in the federal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN, a sign that prosecutors may be moving closer to indicting the former president. 

Asked if he would pardon Trump if he’s convicted of crime, Pence said he would not speak about hypotheticals. Pence again said that “no one’s above the law” and that “the handling of classified materials is a very serious matter.”

He said that he doesn’t “know the facts of the former president’s case. But what we’ve got to have in this country is equal treatment under the law.”

Pence added he was “troubled” over the search warrant executed by the Justice Department at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. “There had to be dozens of ways that could have been handled other than that kind of behavior,” he said.

He then pivoted to criticizing President Joe Biden over his timeframe of alerting the DOJ about documents found in his office.

More on the Mar-a-Lago documents probe: The special counsel’s investigation has scrutinized Trump’s handling of classified documents he brought with him to his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort after leaving the White House, including actions that were taken after Trump received a subpoena in May 2022 to return all classified materials in his possession. Last August, FBI agents retrieved more than 100 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago after obtaining a search warrant.  

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Paula Reid, Sara Murray, Jeremy Herb and Kristen Holmes contributed reporting in this post.  

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday night that he has “no interest or no intention” of pardoning people who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

“I have no interest or no intention of pardoning those that assaulted police officers or vandalized our capitol. They need to be answerable to the law,” Pence told Dana Bash during a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa.

He referenced a statement he made on Twitter the day of the attack urging people to leave the Capitol and discouraging violence.

“I said that those that failed to do that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and I continue to believe that today,” he said.

Pence’s comments contrast with former President Donald Trump, who said he was “inclined to pardon” many of the pro-Trump rioters who were convicted for their roles in the attack on the Capitol. He said he won’t be able to pardon “every single one” but said “it will be a large portion of them.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also suggested that he would consider pardoning some convicted on January 6 charges.

CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi contributed reporting to this post.

Asked Wednesday if a vote for Donald Trump is a vote against the Constitution, Mike Pence referred to his experiences during the January 6 insurrection, where Trump asserted Pence had the right to overturn the election results.

“I said today that I felt that he was asking me to choose between him and the Constitution. I chose the Constitution. And I always will,” Pence said, referencing his remarks earlier Wednesday when he launched his campaign.

“I said today President Trump was wrong then, he’s wrong now,” he added.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said he is running for the Republican presidential nomination because he believes “this country is in a lot of trouble.”

He pointed to issues like inflation and foreign policy where he thinks Democrats have not been doing a good job.

“Now more than ever, I think those of us that have the experience to bring back real change and to put America back on a track of common sense, conservative principles have a responsibility to step forward,” Pence said at a CNN town hall Wednesday night.

CNN’s town hall with former Vice President Mike Pence is happening now in Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Pence, who turned 64 today, is answering questions from CNN’s Dana Bash and Iowa voters just hours after officially announcing his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

The live audience includes Iowa Republicans and Iowa voters who say they plan to pre-register to take part in the Republican caucuses by the deadline set by the state GOP and who pledge to appear in person at the caucuses.

The town hall offers an early window into how Pence, who served under former President Donald Trump, plans to run against his prior boss, who’s the front-runner for the GOP nomination.

The two men have been at odds over Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and incite an insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The event will also shed light on how Pence, a former Indiana congressman and governor, plans to try to differentiate himself from the early polling leaders like Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on issues like abortion, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and more.

Where you can watch: The town hall is streaming live, without requiring a cable login, on CNN.com’s homepage and across mobile devices via CNN’s apps for iOS and Android, and CNN OTT and mobile apps or via live TV.

The town hall will also be available on demand beginning Thursday to pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, CNN OTT apps and cable operator platforms.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is set to field questions from Iowa voters in a CNN town hall soon after officially announcing off his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination earlier in the day.

Here are some key things to watch for in the event:

Pence vs. Trump on Capitol riot: Pence was a loyalist of former President Donald Trump through their two campaigns as running mates and four years in office. But the two had a public falling-out after Trump urged Pence to attempt to overturn the results by rejecting some swing states’ Electoral College votes. Pence insisted he had no constitutional authority to do so in his ceremonial role presiding over Congress as those votes were counted.

Pence first took on his former boss in a February 2022 speech in which he was critical of the pressure Trump privately and publicly heaped on him.

“President Trump was wrong,” Pence said then. “I had no right to overturn the election.”

He has also said Trump endangered Pence’s family, which was in the Capitol on January 6. Trump was slow to release a message telling his supporters to stop attacking the Capitol while Pence was inside and some of the mob were chanting death threats against him.

Trump has continued to repeat falsehoods about voter fraud, which millions of his supporters have bought into, and he once again refused to concede that he lost during a CNN town hall last month.

It’s not yet clear to what extent Pence is willing to place his differences with Trump over the aftermath of the 2020 election at the center of his campaign. Pence’s campaign announcement video, released early Wednesday, does not mention Trump.

Wednesday’s town hall will shed light on how the former vice president plans to approach the issue.

New messages from Pence? Pence has been a regular speaker at conservative gatherings for months. But this week, when he filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to officially enter the 2024 race, the ground shifted.

Now that he is a candidate, Pence will have to repair his image in the eyes of many conservatives who cast him aside after Trump’s 2020 loss (and in some cases have booed him since).

He’ll have to offer a message that stands on its own, outside the context of his relationship with the former president.

CNN’s town hall – following his official campaign launch earlier in the day – will be an important opportunity to begin to do just that.

The Iowa caucuses, which kick off the GOP nominating process in early 2024, will likely be crucial to Pence’s hopes.

“Iowa feels more like Indiana than any other state in the nation,” he said in Des Moines last month.

Here are four other things to watch for in CNN’s town hall.

CNN will soon host a town hall with former Vice President Mike Pence in the key state of Iowa. The state will kick off the 2024 Republican presidential nominating process early next year with its caucuses. 

It’s a tradition that has turned the Hawkeye State into the focal point of many GOP campaigns and positioned its voters to have a crucial role in determining the party’s nominee. 

Iowa’s role as the first state in the presidential nominating process dates to the 1970s. In 1972, it was the first state to hold its Democratic caucus — and it moved to the front of the Republican line four years later in 1976. 

The lead-up to the Iowa caucuses has historically been seen as a test of campaigns’ organizational strength. And its winner typically leaves Iowa with a jolt of momentum in the national polls as the race then shifts to New Hampshire for the Granite State’s primary. 

Iowa is one of the few remaining states to eschew primaries in favor of choosing parties’ nominees in caucuses — election-night gatherings at which voters discuss the candidates and cast their ballots in person. 

Caucuses, unlike primaries, are run by political parties, and are held in venues such as fire stations, churches and schools. 

In Democratic caucuses in Iowa, caucus-goers separate into groups to indicate their candidate preferences and the support of at least 15% of attendees is necessary for the candidate to be considered viable and be awarded delegates. However, in Republican caucuses, attendees cast paper ballots, which are then counted in person. Delegates are awarded based on the results. 

As far as the national momentum-building role of the Iowa caucuses, those election-night results are conclusive. But the official process continues: Delegates selected on election night in the months ahead attend county, district and state conventions, where they are narrowed and delegates for the national convention are chosen. 

The Iowa caucuses are important, but not necessarily decisive. In 2016, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz finished first, narrowly ahead of then-businessman Donald Trump and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Trump would seize the GOP’s nomination in the weeks and months that followed 

Former Vice President Mike Pence announced Wednesday he’s running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination as he delivered his toughest takedown to date of primary rival and former boss Donald Trump, who he said “should never” be president again for his actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

At his formal campaign kickoff in Ankeny, Iowa, Pence recalled how Trump had asked him to block the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win as Pence presided over Congress on January 6, 2021.

“The American people deserve to know, on that day, President Trump also demanded I choose between him and the Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution, and I always will,” Pence said to applause from the crowd at Des Moines Area Community College.

“I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States. And anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again,” the former vice president said of his onetime boss, currently the front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination.

In remarks that ran a little over half an hour, Pence, who had been a loyal second-in-command to Trump prior to January 6, maintained that he was “incredibly proud” of the Trump-Pence administration’s “accomplishments,” before explaining why he was challenging his onetime ticket mate.

“The former president continues to insist that I had the right to overturn the election. President Trump was wrong then, and he is wrong now. I will always believe, by God’s grace, I did my duty on that day, I kept my oath, to ensure the peaceful transfer of power under the Constitution and the laws of this country,” he said.

Read more about his campaign launch here.

The Justice Department has closed its investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents found at former Vice President Mike Pence’s home and will not bring any charges, according to a letter from the DOJ obtained by CNN last week.

The decision allows Pence to offer an additional contrast between himself and former President Donald Trump in the 2024 race, his political rival who’s under serious investigation by the Justice Department and others.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department’s National Security Division have conducted an investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information,” the Justice Department wrote to Pence’s attorney. “Based on the results of that investigation, no criminal charges will be sought.”

How we got here: In January, Pence’s attorney found about a dozen documents marked classified in Pence’s Indiana home after the former vice president asked his lawyer to search his records following the disclosure of classified documents in Joe Biden’s possession in Delaware.

Pence turned over the classified records to the FBI following their discovery, and the FBI and Justice Department’s National Security Division launched a review of how they ended up at Pence’s home. Pence has said that he had been unaware the documents were at his home but said that “mistakes were made” and took responsibility for it.

The Justice Department is still investigating the handling of classified records by Trump and Biden. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel in each investigation, citing the fact that they are candidates for president.

DOJ declined to comment but confirmed sending the letter.

Read more here.

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s entrance into the 2024 race sets up an unpredictable battle between the former president who helped incite an insurrection in his bid to cling to power and his once-loyal vice president who played a role in stopping that effort to thwart democracy.

Pence has publicly criticized former President Donald Trump over his assertion that Pence had the authority to overturn the 2020 election results, but he has not taken aim at Trump’s character and has repeatedly said that he’s proud of their administration’s record. Trump, in contrast, has already unleashed personal barbs at other 2024 Republican rivals, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Pence, a former congressman and Indiana governor, was selected as Trump’s running mate in 2016 in part because he could help Trump shore up the GOP’s socially conservative base.

An evangelical Christian who has long opposed abortion rights, Pence frequently says he considers himself “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order.”

He rose in the GOP’s ranks on Capitol Hill in the early 2000s, ultimately becoming the third-ranking House Republican from 2009 to 2011. He was elected governor of Indiana in 2012.

In Trump’s White House, Pence was a loyal deputy, touting the administration’s successes as the president’s. He chaired the White House’s coronavirus task force, which coordinated the administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and laid the groundwork for the distribution of vaccines shortly after Trump and Pence left office.

However, Pence broke with Trump over the former president’s actions in the wake of the 2020 election, which is now the subject of a special counsel investigation.

Trump publicly and privately sought to pressure Pence to reject key swing state results in the vice president’s ceremonial role leading Congress in counting electoral votes. On January 6, 2021, Trump was slow to stop his supporters from attacking the US Capitol while Pence was inside and some of the mob were chanting death threats against him.

In April, Pence testified in the special counsel investigation, the first time in modern history that a vice president had been compelled to testify about the president he served. He had offered details about his conversations with Trump leading up to and after January 6 in his autobiography, “So Help Me God.”

Pence said what he’s relayed in interviews and in his memoir is “the same story that I would tell in that setting, and it’s the truth.”

Pence has been critical of Trump at times as he weighed a presidential bid, including in a February 2022 speech that showcased the lasting rift between the two men. “President Trump was wrong,” Pence said then. “I had no right to overturn the election.”

Trump, for his part, has said Pence “very greatly disappointed me” on the day the electoral votes were certified.

The former vice president has already sought to draw policy differences with his former boss including on entitlement programs, abortion and America’s support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Former Vice President Mike Pence will participate in a CNN town hall soon following the official launch of his 2024 presidential campaign earlier in the day.

The event will be moderated by CNN anchor and chief political correspondent Dana Bash. Pence will field questions from Bash and a live audience comprised of Iowa Republicans and voters who say they plan to preregister to take part in the Republican caucuses by the deadline set by the state GOP and pledge to appear in person at the caucuses.

The town hall will stream live, without requiring a cable login, on CNN.com’s homepage and across mobile devices via CNN’s apps for iOS and Android, and CNN OTT and mobile apps or via live TV.

The town hall will also be available on demand beginning Thursday to pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, CNN OTT apps and cable operator platforms.

You can read more about tonight’s town hall here.

Do you know who is polling third in the 2024 Republican race for president? That may feel like an odd question given that the two leading candidates, former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, are the only ones averaging over 5% nationally.

The answer, though, is former Vice President Mike Pence and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, both tied at just 4%.

More worrisome for Haley and other candidates polling outside the top two is the seeming nationalization of the GOP primary process this year. We’re seeing that reflected in state polling, including in the early voting and declared candidates’ home states: All largely show a significant advantage for Trump.

Presidential primaries, unlike general elections, don’t occur on the same day. They’re sequential, with outsize importance given to the states that vote first. This is why you see Republican candidates flocking to Iowa (for its caucuses) and New Hampshire (for the first-in-the-nation primary).

In recent years, national polling leaders at this point in the primary season who would go on to lose their party nominations did so in part because they lost the Iowa caucuses. That happened to the two candidates with the largest national leads: Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Hillary Clinton, each in 2008.

Both were clearly in trouble in Iowa at this point in the cycle. In fact, neither led their side’s contests in Des Moines Register polling from May 2007.

Keep reading here.

Former Vice President Mike Pence announced he’s running for president on Wednesday, setting up a battle for the Republican nomination with his ex-boss, former President Donald Trump.

In a launch video released ahead of his campaign kickoff later in the day in Iowa, Pence casts himself as a Reagan Republican seeking to return America to conservative principles.

“It would be easy to stay on the sidelines. But that’s not how I was raised,” he says in the video. “That’s why today, before God and my family, I’m announcing I’m running for president of the United States.”

Pence’s presidential bid places him in a unique position as he becomes the first vice president in modern history to challenge his old boss, who’s the current frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination. Though a loyal second-in-command to Trump, Pence broke with him by refusing to overturn the 2020 election results and presiding over Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s victory on January 6, 2021.

Pence argues in the video – which makes no mention of Trump and features no images of the former president – that “different times call for different leadership” and that the nation needs a leader “that will appeal, as Lincoln said, to the better angels of our nature.”

“We can bring this country back. We can defend our nation and secure our border. We could revive our economy, and put our nation back on a path to a balanced budget, defend our liberties and give America a new beginning for life,” Pence says.

After filing with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, Pence is officially launching his campaign in the early voting state of Iowa, which his team views as vital to him securing the nomination. He’ll participate in a CNN town hall in the state on Wednesday evening.

Read more here.

The Republican National Committee announced Friday that the first presidential primary debate will take place on August 23 in Milwaukee and also laid out the polling and donor thresholds candidates must meet to make the stage.

For the polling requirement, candidates will need to register at least 1% in three national polls, or a combination of national polls and a poll from the early-voting states recognized by the RNC.

Qualifying candidates will also need “a minimum of 40,000 unique donors to candidate’s principal presidential campaign committee (or exploratory committee), with at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in 20+ states and/or territories,” the RNC said in a statement.

The candidates must also sign a pledge “agreeing to support the eventual party nominee,” the committee said.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has publicly supported requiring a so-called loyalty pledge for participation in the GOP debates saying in February it was a “no-brainer.”

“If you’re going to be on the Republican National Committee debate stage asking voters to support you, you should say, ‘I’m going to support the voters and who they choose as the nominee,’” McDaniel told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

Candidates must present these qualifications to the RNC 48 hours before the first debate, which will be hosted by Fox News. The committee also said that “should enough candidates qualify to make it necessary,” a second debate will be held on August 24.

More background: The rules are more stringent than what Democrats required during the 2020 cycle to qualify for their first presidential debate, when candidates had to either register at least 1% in support in three polls from an approved list of pollsters or receive campaign contributions from 65,000 unique donors, including 200 donors each from 20 different states.

The Republican requirement for 2024 candidates to meet both the polling and donor threshold could make qualifying difficult for some hopefuls who are struggling to garner 1% in polls or in fundraising.

CNN reported last month that former President Donald Trump, seen as the current front-runner for the GOP nomination, has privately discussed skipping either one or both of the first two Republican presidential primary debates, according to three sources who spoke with him about his plans. Trump’s advisers pointed to his commanding lead in the polls as one reason for his hesitation. But some close to the former president said it was too early to make a decision either way.

Former Vice President and GOP presidential candidate Mike Pence will be participating in a CNN town hall tonight in Iowa, where he will face questions from CNN host Dana Bash and Republican voters about his political record and stances on key issues.

Here’s a look back at some key moments from his career in politics:

2000 - Is elected to the US House of Representatives for the 2nd District of Indiana.

2002 - Is elected to the US House of Representatives for the 6th District of Indiana. The district was renumbered in 2002. He is reelected in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010.

2009-2011 - Is the Republican Conference chair.

2012 - Is elected governor of Indiana. His campaign includes a grassroots trek across the state called the “Big Red Truck Tour.”

March 26, 2015 - Pence signs the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), banning local governments from intervening when businesses turn away customers for religious reasons. The law sparks concern about discrimination, particularly within the LGBTQ community.

April 2, 2015 - Pence signs a new version of the RFRA that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

July 15, 2016 - GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump tweets that he has chosen Pence to be his running mate. The formal announcement takes place July 16.

November 8, 2016 - Is elected vice president of the United States.

January 20, 2017 - Sworn in as vice president of the United States.

January 27, 2017 - Pence speaks at the March for Life, an anti-abortion rally in Washington. He is the first sitting vice president to make a speech at the annual event.

February 18, 2017 - Pence delivers a speech at the Munich Security Conference, declaring that the United States will hold Russia accountable for acts of aggression even as the Trump administration makes an effort to cultivate stronger ties with Moscow.

March 2, 2017 - The Indianapolis Star reports that while governor of Indiana, Pence used a private email account to conduct some state business and that it was hacked. Indiana’s Code of Ethics does not address officials’ use of personal emails. Pence also had a state-provided email address.

August 9, 2018 - In a speech to US military and civilian personnel, Pence calls for the establishment of a Space Force by 2020.

January 16, 2019 - At the Global Chiefs of Mission conference, Pence declares that “the caliphate has crumbled, and ISIS has been defeated.” Hours before, the US-led coalition confirmed that American troops had been killed in an explosion in Manbij, an attack that ISIS claimed responsibility for.

February 26, 2020 - Trump places Pence in charge of the US government response to the novel coronavirus, amid growing criticism of the White House’s handling of the outbreak.

November 7, 2020 - Days after the presidential election on November 3, CNN projects Trump and Pence have lost to former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris.

April 7, 2021 - Pence announces the launch of a new political advocacy group, “Advancing American Freedom.” 

November 14, 2022 - During a interview with ABC’s David Muir, Pence says he thinks “America will have better choices in the future” than Trump as president in 2024, and admits he’s considering running himself.

November 15, 2022 - Pence’s new memoir, “So Help Me God,” is published. The book includes Pence’s recollections of his experience during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

April 27, 2023 - Pence testifies to a federal grand jury investigating the aftermath of the 2020 election and the actions of Trump and others, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The testimony marks the first time in modern history a vice president has been compelled to testify about the president he served beside.

The first Republican primary debate won’t occur until August. The first primaries and caucuses won’t occur until early next year.

But the 2024 presidential primary campaign is well underway.

There’s a growing field of declared candidates who will begin traveling around early primary states, appearing in interviews and jockeying for attention. Super PACs aligned with their interests are already doing battle on the airwaves.

Here are the currently declared Republican presidential candidates, sorted by their place in the most recent CNN poll of the potential GOP primary electorate:

Donald Trump

Ron DeSantis

Mike Pence

Nikki Haley

Tim Scott

Chris Christie

Vivek Ramaswamy

Asa Hutchison

Doug Burgum

Larry Elder

Read more about each candidate here.