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A noose is seen on makeshift gallows as supporters of US President Donald Trump gather on the West side of the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

When former President Donald Trump heard his supporters chanting "hang Mike Pence" during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, White House aides said he told them the vice president "deserves" it, according to a former White House aide who testified Tuesday to what she saw and heard during the weeks surrounding the attack.

The jaw-dropping remarks came during the sixth public hearing by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol by a violent pro-Trump mob.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, in sworn testimony recounted her experience witnessing Meadows and another top official, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, discussing Trump's reaction as the riot unfolded.

At the White House, Cipollone told Meadows, "The rioters have gotten to the capitol, Mark. We need to go down and see the president now," Hutchinson testified.

Meadows replied, "He doesn't want to do anything, Pat," Hutchinson said.

Cipollone shot back, essentially saying that something must be done or "people are going to die and the blood's going to be on your effing hands," Hutchinson said.

Meadows and Cipollone both walked toward the Oval Office dining room. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, then called asking for Meadows, Hutchinson testified. She said she went to the dining room to give the phone to Meadows, who took the call with the door ajar. Hutchinson said that in the background, she could hear conversations about the chants of "hang Mike Pence" that had sprung up among some of the rioters.

Hutchinson said she returned to her desk and Meadows and Cipollone appeared minutes later.

"I remember Pat saying something to the effect of, 'Mark, we need to do something more. They're literally calling for the vice president to be effing hung,'" Hutchinson testified.

"Mark had responded something to the effect of, 'You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong,'" Hutchinson said.

She told the committee, "I understood 'they're' to bethe rioters in the Capitol that were chantingfor the vice president to be hung."

Trump, who was responding to Hutchinson's testimony in real time on his social media platform Truth Social, angrily lashed out following her recollections from inside the White House.

"I NEVER SAID, 'MIKE PENCE DESERVES IT (to be hung)," Trump wrote. "Another made up statement by a third rate social climber!"

Hutchinson's counsel said in a statement to NBC News that while the former White House aide "did not seek out the attention accompanying her testimony today, she believes that it was her duty and responsibility to provide the Committee with her truthful and candid observations of the events surrounding January 6."

"Ms. Hutchinson believes that January 6 was a horrific day for the country, and it is vital to the future of our democracy that it not be repeated," read the statement from her counsel Jody HuntandWilliam Jordan of law firm Alston and Bird.

Read more:
Trump chief of staff said the president thought Pence 'deserves' chants of 'hang Mike Pence' on Jan. 6, ex-aide testifies - CNBC

At this point in time, Pence is in a GOP purgatory as he begins to build his campaign.

INDIANAPOLIS June 24, 2022, should have been the political holy grail for Mike Pence. It was the day he had long strived for, the day Roe v. Wade was consigned to the ash heap of history.

Today, life won. By overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court of the United States has given the American people a new beginning for life and I commend the Justices in the majority for having the courage of their convictions, Pence said shortly after the Supreme Court issued its ruling on the Dobbs case. By returning the question of abortion to the states and to the people, this Supreme Court has righted an historic wrong and reaffirmed the right of the American people to govern themselves at the state level in a manner consistent with their values and aspirations. Now that Roe v. Wade has been consigned to the ash heap of history, a new arena in the cause of life has emerged and it is incumbent on all who cherish the sanctity of life to resolve that we take the defense of the unborn and the support for women in crisis pregnancy centers to every state in America.

Pences campaign PAC Advancing American Freedom quickly released a video saying that for pro-life Americans today is one many thought they would never see while adding, His cause is our cause. It pointed out he was the first Republican in Congress to propose defunding Planned Parenthood, he cast a pivotal tie-breaking vote in the Senate as vice president, and as governor of Indiana, signed every pro-life bill he was presented.

And in the White House, Mike Pence provided the guidance and advice to the president to select Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, three of the five votes making this incredible moment possible, it continues. Lives will be saved.

For Mike Pence, and all of us, the mission is still the same: Foster the sanctity of life, the video said.

Donald Trumps reaction was more muted, saying, that God made the decision, then later Friday calling the Dobbs decision the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation and only made possible because I delivered everything as promised.

But the former Indiana governor and American vice president finds himself in a political no-mans land at the precise time of his most profound political achievement. A recent 2024 presidential poll in New Hampshire had Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis leading Donald Trump by 2%, while Pence stood far back at a mere 9%. A CAPS/Harvard Poll had Trump leading with 57% while 11% backed Pence. A Reuters/Ipsos Poll had Trump leading Pence 54-8%. These polls were taken before the bombshell testimony heard on the U.S. House Jan. 6 Select Committee that has implicated Trump in inspiring the U.S. Capitol insurrection, with Trump supporters chanting Hang Mike Pence.

While some Republicans seeking the 2024 presidential nomination are treading lightly on the issue, opting for what one consultant told the Washington Post the safest place for Republicans is to say, Send it to the states, Pence is advocating for a national abortion ban. We must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land, Pence tweeted last week. He tweeted out, Apply to host Vice President Mike Pence on your campus this fall.

I was startled when I asked a leading Hoosier pro-life advocate several weeks ago about whether Pence would reap political credit in a 2024 presidential race if Roe were overturned. The reaction was one of ambivalence. This person observed what many in Indiana have said about Pence, which is that he appears to have forgotten his roots and has moved on to the national stage. Indiana Right to Lifeand affiliates in Northeast Indiana also issued statements of joy at the ruling, but none mentioned the role Mike Pence had played.

Ive asked a number of members of Congress and key Indiana GOP political operatives this question: Could Mike Pence beat Donald Trump in a 2024 Indiana presidential primary? Not one said yes.

Pence swoops in for fundraisers and an occasional endorsement, the most conspicuous was for Indiana Senate District 14 candidate Ron Turpin, who was subsequently blown out 52-38% by Tyler Johnson in that Fort Wayne area seat in last Mays primary. Pence is scheduled to keynote a coming prominent NE Indiana political event this fall.

At this point in time, Pence is in a GOP purgatory as he begins to build his campaign. He has been praised by congressional Democrats for standing up to Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, but is seen as a deserter by the Trump base, and as a toady bootlicker by anti-Trump Republicans, independents and Democrats. As the New York Times Maggie Habermann and Reid Epstein observed, The whipsaw of images creates an uncertain foundation for a potential presidential campaign, for which Mr. Pence has been laying the groundwork.

Memo to Mike Pence: Youve forgotten the peeps who propelled your Washington career.

The columnist is publisher of Howey Politics Indiana atwww.howeypolitics.com. Find Howey on Facebook and Twitter @hwypol.

Continued here:
HOWEY: The Dobbs decision and Mike Pence - WTHR

In May, Elon Musk went on the warpath against the investment model known by the initials ESG, short for environmental, social and governance principles.

ESG is a scam, Musk, the chief executive of electric-car maker Tesla, groused in a tweet. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.

Musk was irked that Tesla had been dropped from a Standard & Poors ESG index while oil company Exxon Mobil remained. But his complaint tied in neatly with a campaign being waged by political conservatives against ESG, or, as they sometimes describe it, woke capitalism.

Climate risk is investment risk.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, 2020

Red states have been implementing policies aimed at taking business away from investment managers whose strategies ostensibly promote environmental goals or social activism say, by shunning investments in fossil fuel or firearms companies or in companies with questionable social practices.

Former Vice President Mike Pence placed the battle against ESG front and center in his quest for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. During a speech in Houston in May, Pence attacked the Biden administration for advancing capricious new ESG regulations that allow left-wing radicals to destroy American energy producers from within.

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Pences words surely fell on welcoming ears in Houston, since ESG investing commonly targets the oil and gas industry and the fossil fuel economy. For example, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a right-wing organization partly funded by the Koch network, which derives much of its wealth from fossil fuels, has promoted a model anti-ESG law.

A Texas law passed last year prohibits state agencies from investing or doing business with financial firms deemed to boycott fossil fuel companies by taking any action ... intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations with those companies.

Texas State Comptroller Glenn Hegar has already begun compiling a list of boycotting firms by asking them to disclose their policies on global warming.

In June, West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore informed six leading Wall Street firms by letter that they had been provisionally found to be boycotting fossil fuel companies, possibly making them ineligible for state contracts. The firms are BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp and Morgan Stanley.

Goldman Sachs and U.S. Bancorp declined my request for comment. BlackRock hasnt commented publicly. JPMorgan told me it hasnt yet responded to Moore; the deadline for responding is July 10. The other two didnt reply.

BlackRock, one of the worlds largest investment management firms, has become a particular target for the anti-ESG crowd. In part thats because BlackRock CEO Larry Fink sounded an early alarm about the investment impact of global warming in his annual letter to corporate CEOs in 2020. Climate risk is investment risk, Fink wrote then.

This year, Fink noted that every company and every industry will be transformed by the transition to a net zero world (that is, reducing the emission of greenhouse gases to zero). He added, The question is, will you lead, or will you be led?

In response, West Virginias Moore announced that his state would withdraw about $20 million in funds from BlackRock management, out of its $8 billion in Treasury investments. BlackRock also manages about $8 billion for the states pension fund, which isnt subject to the treasurers action.

Still, the pushback by states doesnt precisely match the weight of the oil and gas industry within their borders.

You dont see legislation penalizing banks or investment funds for shunning oil and gas companies coming out of blue California, which ranks second in the nation in most measures of oil and gas economic activity, according to the American Petroleum Institute, or Pennsylvania (third to fifth, depending on the metric), or other top-10 states such as New York, New Jersey and Illinois.

You see them in red states such as Texas, Kentucky and Tennessee. Texas ranks first in the nation in oil and gas activity, but the other two arent even among the top 15.

In Tennessee, which enacted a law forbidding the state treasurer to do business with a financial institution that refuses to finance companies in the fossil fuel industry, the oil and gas industry accounts for about 4% of employment in the state.

Thats a sign that ESG has become an all-purpose rallying cry in the partisan culture wars. For Republicans and the right wing, ESG is the new critical race theory. Its a concept nebulous enough to be made to seem offensive or evil.

The term itself can be weaponized as a catchphrase to rile up the base; insofar as the base has no idea what it even means, so much the better. (Not even the most hidebound anti-CRT flag-carriers can explain what CRT is.)

Its worth noting that state-level attacks on financial companies over their purported favoring of ESG issues, especially state laws aimed at protecting the oil and gas industry, can be expensive.

The 2021 Texas law prohibiting municipalities from dealing with banks that appeared to have pro-ESG policies led to the exit of five major municipal underwriters from the state, according to a study by Daniel Garrett of the University of Pennsylvania and Ivan Ivanov of the Federal Reserve.

They estimated that the interest costs for Texas municipalities on $32 billion in borrowing during the first eight months after the laws enactment were higher by as much as $532 million.

Conservative attacks on ESG arent new. The Trump administration took aim at the concept in 2020, when the Department of Labor tried to limit the ability of retirement account managers to offer account holders options for socially responsible or sustainable investments. Another Trump initiative aimed to make it harder for those managers to vote in favor of shareholder resolutions promoting ESG goals.

The Biden administration dropped those rules in March.

This is merely another iteration of the campaign against wokeness, which seems to be the core of what some Republican officeholders and aspirants have to offer voters.

A good example is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made Walt Disney Co., one of his states largest employers, a target of his theatrical wrath because it deigned to criticize Floridas so-called Dont Say Gay law, which discourages teaching in public schools about gender issues.

Its easy to tar ESG as a left-wing, radical or fringe policy threatening sober, responsible corporate managements never mind that it has been spreading through Wall Street faster than almost any other investing concept in recent memory.

With ESG investing now accounting for more than $20 trillion in assets under management in the U.S. alone, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, or more than one-third of the total assets, ESG is now unmistakably mainstream.

For all that, ESG can be a squishy concept in practice. Deutsche Bank has come under investigation by German authorities and Goldman Sachs by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly pasting ESG labels on investment funds that may not be especially rigorous about focusing on legitimate ESG companies, a practice sometimes described as greenwashing.

The SEC has proposed rules to promote consistent, comparable and reliable information for investors concerning funds and advisors incorporation of environmental, social, and governance factors. Among other rules, the agency says, funds focused on the consideration of environmental factors generally would be required to disclose the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their portfolio investments.

The investigations and the SEC proposals imply that investment firms are trying to serve the publics enthusiasm for socially responsible investing without doing the hard work of fashioning portfolios that meet the standard.

Defining what even qualifies as an ESG investment, however, isnt easy. The investment world is engaged in a vigorous debate over whether fossil fuel companies should be excluded from ESG portfolios entirely, or whether its proper to invest in some companies that are trying to transition from petroleum to renewables but havent completed the journey.

Environmental and social issues often go hand in hand. Musks complaint about S&Ps ESG index overlooked the reason Tesla was dropped from the roster: According to S&P, it was because of issues related to accusations of racial discrimination at Tesla and questions about the safety of Teslas Autopilot driver-assist features.

Exxon stayed on the list as an artifact of S&Ps complicated industry weighting process for the index, but didnt represent S&Ps judgment that the oil company was a beacon of environmental responsibility.

Not all fossil fuel companies respond to ESG initiatives with unalloyed hostility despite Pences assertion in his Houston speech that three directors elected to the board of Exxon Mobil on an ESG platform last year are now working to undermine the company from the inside.

In fact, Exxon Mobil has taken steps to placate ESG investors not least because the three directors elected last year in the campaign sponsored by the sustainable investment firm Engine No. 1 were reelected this year. In a one-year retrospective, Engine No. 1 reported that since the original election, Exxon has taken a multitude of actions to reduce its emissions footprint and has begun to lay the foundations for a viable low-carbon business strategy.

These initiatives can be viewed as undermining fossil fuel companies only if one believes that the oil and gas industry will be immune into the limitless future from the consequences of global warming and the developed worlds transition to alternative energy. As ESG investors understand, thats not the way to bet.

Read the original:
Hiltzik: For Republicans, ESG is the new critical race theory - Los Angeles Times

Testimony before the House Jan. 6 committee has often been cringeworthy, primarily because what Donald Trump was actively trying to do his steadfast intent, in the face of all evidence and most of the advice from the approximately sane people around him is abundantly clear to anyone who has an open mind.

But it gets especially excruciating when we have to hear accounts of Trump getting all hissy and hurt, his tantrums turning to vindictiveness, like an immature, petulant high school student. (Most likely a ninth-grader with emotional problems.)

None of that behavior is surprising, because Donald John Trump has always shown everyone around him and indeed everyone, period precisely who he is, a shameless man-boy who lies andcheats to get ahead and takes pleasure in bullying others, all the while bleating about how others treat him unfairly because they accurately point out that he's a liar, cheat and bully.

RELATED:Did "surprise witness" Cassidy Hutchinson save America from Trump's comeback?

He's a human Mbius strip of misdirection, misinformation and misappropriation of funds from his supporters.

We've always known that Trump was happy to encourage violence among his followers, so while it was shocking to hear about him reportedly throwing White House lunches and dinners against the wall or onto the floor, or about his henchmen's alleged efforts to influence witnesses, mob-style, it wasn't exactly surprising.

Everybody's talking about Cassidy Hutchinson's bombshell testimony but let's go back to the Jan. 5 session when Trump tried to browbeat Mike Pence.

In its sessions so far, the Jan. 6 committee has covered. While everyone and their uncle is talking about former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's bombshell testimony during the surprise hearing on June 28, let's not forget the session that focused on Trump's relationship with his fanboy vice president, whom we now know Trump was willing to see hanged in front of the Capitol by the armed mob he had summoned to Washington and whipped into a fury.

In meeting with Mike Pence and John Eastman the attorney full of imaginative schemes who later on just wondered about that pardon on Jan. 5, 2021, the eve of You Know What, Trump reportedly pressed the veep to do his bidding in his usual mature manner: "You can either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a pussy." (We don't know whether any of the White House china wound up on the floor during this encounter.)

When Pence correctly responded that he had no constitutional authority to stop or reject the certification of the electoral votes, according to the account in "Peril," by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Trump tried to appeal to some untapped adolescent side within the pious Hoosier, asking him: "But wouldn't it almost be cool to have that power?"

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While it's a bit of a stretch to call Mike Pence a hero, his backbone had apparently been stiffened by conversations with former Vice President Dan Quayle and retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig (man of exceedingly slow answers), and he continued to resist. That was when Trump pulled out his big guns, threatening Pence with the horror of taking away his friendship:

When Pence did not budge, Trump turned on him.

"No, no, no! Trump shouted, according to the authors. "You don't understand, Mike. You can do this. I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this."

One is reminded of the queen bee character played by Rachel McAdams in Tina Fey's spot-on 2004 film "Mean Girls." She wouldn't have been so pathetically direct about it, but manipulating others by leveraging her "friendship" was certainly how she rolled.

But that wasn't the final card pulled by Mean Girl Trump in the climactic Pence meeting. When the vice president refused to play along with Trump's plot to subvert the Constitution and undo the outcome of a legitimate election, Trump called on his public, via social media and speeches and anything else he could think of, to "tell on" Pence and ramp up the pressure for him to "do the right thing." What's more, he kept that up well after he had to know that Pence was in real physical danger at the Capitol.

People inside the White House, including the former president's daughter Ivanka, have testified that Trump phoned Pence on the morning of the insurrection and during a final heated conversation called him a "wimp" and a "pussy."

Trump's deepest fear, through all this, was that he might wind up being thought of as a loser. Asreported by the New York Times, the day before Trump and his many co-conspirators in the West Wing, in the "war room" at the Willard hotel and in the Capitol itself kicked off the insurrection for real, he admitted as much to people around him:

The president has told several people privately that he would rather lose with people thinking it was stolen from him than that he simply lost, according to people familiar with his remarks.

That is so, so high school. And there it is again, the knowledge that what he was doing was based on a lie (in case "Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen" wasn't enough for you). Trump always planned to say the 2020 election was stolen if he didn't win. He started undermining the process in the eyes of his supporters back in the 2016 primaries and then when he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million.

As we have learned from the committee hearings, Trump also understood that his Big Lie about election fraud presented him another opportunity for grift. He reportedly brought in some $250 million from his supporters for a nonexistent election defense fund (which was supposed to investigate nonexistent election fraud), emailing his small-dollar donors dozens of times a day.

People of my generation are always hoping that members of the younger generation will step up and save us from ourselves. Cassidy Hutchinson, a well-spoken 25-year-old, did just that. It was remarkably brave of her to do the right thing, to tell the truth about what she saw and heard in the mob social club of the Trump White House. (It's also reasonable to ask what she thought she was doing there in the first place.)

The ultimate lesson of these hearings so far is clear: The former president of the United States still thinks it might be "cool" to destroy democracy, and if you don't want to go along with that he definitely won't be your friend anymore and might just encourage his followers to string you up.

As Salon columnist and longtime White House correspondent Brian Karem noted recently, if our democracy is to survive, this dangerous mean girl must finally face the consequences of his actions. Seeing Trump and his enablers prosecuted would only be a first step toward our national recovery, but a vitally important one. It might make sure that future presidents don't emulate his example and remind them that "being our friend" isn't actually part of the job.

Read more on our 45th president and the Jan. 6 committee:

Read more:
Donald J. Trump, meanest of mean girls: He so doesn't want to be our friend anymore - Salon

Former President Trump has hinted repeatedly that hes weighing another bid for the White House in 2024.

And while hes made clear that, if he does so, the nomination should be his for the taking, he could still face some competition. A number of Republicans have begun maneuvering toward presidential campaigns of their own, some more overtly than others.

Of course, theres a political risk that comes with challenging Trump. But that doesnt appear to be deterring some prospective candidates.

Here are the five Republicans who could challenge Trump for the partys 2024 presidential nod.

Ron DeSantis

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has brushed off suggestions that he will mount a presidential campaign in 2024, saying that his No. 1 priority is winning a second term in the governors mansion.

But he also hasnt explicitly ruled out the possibility, and unlike several other prospective GOP presidential contenders, he hasnt committed to forgoing a White House bid if Trump launches a comeback campaign.

And with his clout among Republicans on the rise, its possible that, if DeSantis ultimately decides to run in 2024, he may not be deterred by the former president.

Early polling shows him as the heavy favorite for the Republican presidential nomination if Trump doesnt run again. There are even a few recent surveys that show him topping Trump in a hypothetical primary match-up.

DeSantiss growing momentum and influence within the GOP suggests that he may ultimately have a path to the nomination, with or without Trump in the race, especially given the fact that he still has plenty of room to grow his name ID among Republicans nationally.

Mike Pence

Despite running afoul of Trump early last year when he rebuffed the former presidents efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, former Vice President Mike Pence has begun more aggressively positioning himself for a potential White House bid in recent months.

Hes given a series of high-profile speeches, traveled to crucial early presidential primary and caucus states and even made a trip to the Ukraine-Poland border amid Russias ongoing invasion.

Pence is also among a small group of Republicans considering a White House run, regardless of what Trump decides to do in 2024.

While he has isolated parts of Trumps conservative voter base with his insistence that he had no right to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Pence has cast himself as a successor to the former presidents policy legacy. Hes touted his work with Trump, while also fashioning himself as a protector of democratic institutions in the face of efforts to tear them down.

All that is to say that Pence might just be willing to take his chances in a potential 2024 match-up against his former boss.

Mike Pompeo

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earned a reputation as one of Trumps most loyal advisers and Cabinet members during his four years in the White House.

But hes since taken steps away from the former president, all the while seeking to boost his post-administration political profile.

Not long after leaving the State Department, Pompeo created a political action committee dubbed Champion American Values PAC or CAVPAC and has actively endorsed in midterm races across the country, at times putting himself at odds with Trump.

In the GOP Senate primary in Pennsylvania, for instance, Pompeo backed former hedge fund CEO David McCormick over Trumps pick for the nomination, celebrity physician Mehmet Oz. Pompeo even held a press briefing ahead of the primary in which he raised concerns about Ozs ties to Turkey.

The former secretary of State has also hinted that his plans for 2024 arent contingent on what Trump does, tellingFox News in an interviewthat any decision about his political future will be his and his alone.

The Pompeos have always used the simple fact of do you believe this is the moment where you think you can best serve America, this is the place you can have the most impact, Pompeo said. That will be how we make our decision in the end.

Larry Hogan

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has long been one of Trumps most prominent Republican critics, so the idea of him challenging the former president for the 2024 GOP nomination isnt exactly surprising.

A Republican governor of a blue state, Hogan has carved out a reputation for himself as a more traditional conservative in the mold of someone like former President Reagan.

Hes warned repeatedly that a 2024 Trump candidacy could cost the GOP the White House once again and has called on the party to look toward its future rather than linger on Trumps 2020 loss.

Hogan is term-limited and isnt seeking reelection this year. And while that frees him up to plot his next political steps, it also comes with another risk: remaining in the spotlight after he officially exits public office.

Still, hes not exactly playing coy with the possibility of a 2024 run. In a Februaryappearance on CNN, Hogan said that hes certainly going to take a look at a White House bid once he leaves office next January.

Ted Cruz

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has never really been shy about his political ambitions. After all, he has already run for president once, finishing second to Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.

Despite a bitter nominating contest between the two men six years ago, Cruz emerged as an ardent supporter of the former president during his time in the White House. But the Texas senator has also shown a willingness to break with Trump, especially when it comes to whom he endorses.

In the Ohio GOP Senate primary, for instance, Cruz was vocal in his support for former state Treasurer Josh Mandel, while Trump backed author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance. Vance ultimately won the nomination.

And Cruz has also been more open than most about his willingness to launch another bid for the White House. Asked in a Decemberinterview with the conservative news outlet The Truth Gazettewhether he would consider another presidential campaign, Cruz responded: Absolutely. In a heartbeat.

Theres a reason historically that the runner-up is almost always the next nominee, Cruz said, referring to his second-place primary finish in 2016. And thats been true going back to Nixon or Reagan or McCain or Romney that has played out repeatedly. You come in with just an enormous base of support.

Original post:
The five Republicans who could challenge Trump in 2024 - The Hill