Category Archives: WMAL News Now

Former Vice President Mike Pence says he’s not endorsing Trump

Former Vice President Mike Pence says he’s not endorsing Trump

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence says he will not be backing Donald Trump in the 2024 election. “It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence said in an interview with Fox News Channel Friday, weighing in for the first time since the former president became the presumptive GOP nominee…Read more

West Virginia lawmakers OK bill drawing back one of the country’s strictest child vaccination laws

West Virginia lawmakers OK bill drawing back one of the country’s strictest child vaccination laws

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s GOP-controlled state Legislature voted Saturday to allow some students who don’t attend traditional public schools to be exempt from state vaccination requirements that have long been held up as among the most strict in the country. The bill was approved despite the objections of Republican Senate Health and Human…Read more

State of the Union: What to watch as Biden addresses the nation

State of the Union: What to watch as Biden addresses the nation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State of the Union speech is one of the biggest pieces of political theater every year. It’s rooted in a simple requirement in the U.S. Constitution that directs the president to “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he…Read more

Nikki Haley will suspend her campaign and leave Donald Trump as the last major Republican candidate

Nikki Haley will suspend her campaign and leave Donald Trump as the last major Republican candidate

NEW YORK (AP) — Nikki Haley will suspend her presidential campaign Wednesday after being soundly defeated across the country on Super Tuesday, according to people familiar with her decision, leaving Donald Trump as the last remaining major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination. Three people with direct knowledge who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized…Read more

Missed a Show? Listen Here

WMAL Daily Show Line Up

Category Archives: WMAL News Now

Former Vice President Mike Pence says he’s not endorsing Trump

Former Vice President Mike Pence says he’s not endorsing Trump

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence says he will not be backing Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence said in an interview with Fox News Channel Friday, weighing in for the first time since the former president became the presumptive GOP nominee. Pence ran against Trump for their party’s nomination but dropped his bid before voting began last year.

The decision makes Pence the latest in a series of senior Trump administration officials who have declined to endorse their former boss’s bid to return to the Oval Office. While Republican members of Congress and other GOP officials have largely rallied behind Trump, a vocal minority has continued to oppose his bid.

It also marks the end of a metamorphosis for Pence, who had long been seen as one of Trump’s most loyal defenders but broke with his two-time running mate by refusing to go along with Trump’s unconstitutional scheme to try to remain in power after losing the 2020 election. When Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s win, Pence was forced to flee to a Senate loading dock as rioters chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!” outside.

https://05e4b9500bc198779ef242fb5cbfc448.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html

In order to participate in the Republican primary debates, Pence was required to sign a pledge saying that he would support the party’s eventual nominee. And during the first debate in Milwaukee, Pence was among the candidates who raised their hands when asked whether they would support Trump even if he were convicted in one of his four criminal indictments.

But Pence had made clear he had come to harbor serious reservations about Trump’s actions and his policy stances.

“I believe anyone that 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,” he said during his campaign launch speech.

As the campaign progressed, he raised alarms about the party’s resistance to sending aid to Ukraine and called on his fellow Republicans to reject what he called the “siren song of populism” espoused by Trump and his followers.

In the interview on Fox’s “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” Pence said he was “incredibly proud” of his and Trump’s record in office, but said, “During my presidential campaign I made it clear that there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues, and not just our difference on my Constitutional duties that I exercised on January the 6th.”

“I mean, as I have watched his candidacy unfold, I’ve seen him walking away from our commitment to confronting the national debt. I’ve seen him starting to shy away from a commitment to the sanctity of human life,” he went on, also referencing what he called Trump’s “reversal on getting tough on China and supporting our administration’s effort to force” the sale of the popular TikTok app.

“In each of these cases, Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. And that’s why I cannot in conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign,” he said.

Pence declined to say whom he would be voting for — “I’m going to keep my vote to myself,” he said — but made clear it wouldn’t be Biden.

“I would never vote for Joe Biden,” he said. “I’m a Republican.”

Netanyahu agrees to send Israeli officials to Washington to discuss prospective Rafah operation

Netanyahu agrees to send Israeli officials to Washington to discuss prospective Rafah operation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss with Biden administration officials a prospective Rafah operation as each side is looking to make “clear to the other its perspective,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said…Continue Reading

West Virginia lawmakers OK bill drawing back one of the country’s strictest child vaccination laws

West Virginia lawmakers OK bill drawing back one of the country’s strictest child vaccination laws

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s GOP-controlled state Legislature voted Saturday to allow some students who don’t attend traditional public schools to be exempt from state vaccination requirements that have long been held up as among the most strict in the country. The bill was approved despite the objections of Republican Senate Health and Human…Continue Reading

State of the Union: What to watch as Biden addresses the nation

State of the Union: What to watch as Biden addresses the nation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State of the Union speech is one of the biggest pieces of political theater every year. It’s rooted in a simple requirement in the U.S. Constitution that directs the president to “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he…Continue Reading

Nikki Haley will suspend her campaign and leave Donald Trump as the last major Republican candidate

Nikki Haley will suspend her campaign and leave Donald Trump as the last major Republican candidate

NEW YORK (AP) — Nikki Haley will suspend her presidential campaign Wednesday after being soundly defeated across the country on Super Tuesday, according to people familiar with her decision, leaving Donald Trump as the last remaining major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination. Three people with direct knowledge who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized…Continue Reading

Nikki Haley wins the District of Columbia’s Republican primary and gets her first 2024 victory

Nikki Haley wins the District of Columbia’s Republican primary and gets her first 2024 victory

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nikki Haley has won the Republican primary in the District of Columbia, notching her first victory of the 2024 campaign. Her victory Sunday at least temporarily halts Donald Trump’s sweep of the GOP voting contests, although the former president is likely to pick up several hundred more delegates in this week’s Super Tuesday races.…Continue Reading

As Biden prepares to address the nation, more than 6 in 10 US adults doubt his mental capability

As Biden prepares to address the nation, more than 6 in 10 US adults doubt his mental capability

WASHINGTON (AP) — A poll finds that a growing share of U.S. adults doubt that 81-year-old President Joe Biden has the memory and acuity for the job, turning his coming State of the Union address into something of a real-time audition for a second term. Roughly 6 in 10 say they’re not very or not at all confident in…Continue Reading

Senators release a border and Ukraine deal but the House speaker declares it ‘dead on arrival’

Senators release a border and Ukraine deal but the House speaker declares it ‘dead on arrival’

Senators on Sunday released a highly anticipated $118 billion package that pairs border enforcement policy with wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies, but it quickly ran into a wall of opposition from top House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson.Continue Reading

Newsletter

Local Weather

On-Air