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SALT LAKE CITY Former Vice President Mike Pence received a warm welcome in Utah from several political and community leaders, when he said he believes the Biden administration has "weakened America at home and abroad," but hinted that change is coming.

He repeatedly took aim at President Joe Biden during a luncheon in the Zions Bank Head Office in Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon, blaming the president for crime, illegal immigration, energy prices and the chaotic removal of troops from Afghanistan.

"I'm here to tell you, hope is on the way," he said. "I truly believe we are 18 months away from a great American comeback, and it will start right here."

Pence, Donald Trump's two-time running mate and vice president, has long been rumored as a potential challenger to his former boss in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. Although Pence has yet to announce a formal campaign, he is reportedly planning to launch a political action committee to back his candidacy, according to Politico.

Projecting a difference in tone and style to the former president, Pence called for a return to civility and respect in political discourse in the country.

"I believe there's a hunger in this country to restore civility to the public debate," he said. "Our politics is more divided today than any time in my lifetime, (but) I'm not convinced the American people are as divided."

The closed-door roundtable was hosted by the Utah Valley University Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy. Former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and philanthropist Scott Keller, whose name adorns the Scott C. Keller business building at UVU, joined Pence for a luncheon that was open to the media, with Herbert moderating a discussion with the former vice president.

While Pence repeatedly rebuffed questions from Herbert about whether he will run in 2024, he dropped several hints that he's planning on doing so while drawing a distinct difference between himself and Trump. Where the former president has continued to grieve his loss in 2020 and cast himself as "retribution" for those he claims were wronged, Pence was optimistic about the future of the country.

"God is not done with America yet, and I believe if we will turn our hearts back to Him, the best days for the greatest nation on Earth are yet to come," he said.

Pence said his opinion of the federal government has gone down over his last two decades in politics, but said his "opinion of the American people has gone up every day."

"I've seen the compassion, the generosity, the kindness, the idealism of the American people every day," he said. "The challenge we have: we just got to have government as good as our people."

In an interview with KSL NewsRadio after his speech, Pence again declined to commit to running, but said the U.S. faces a crisis of national debt, and Americans deserve a leader who will be upfront with them.

"Without making any announcements today, if the American people were to call me into service, I think I'd spend a little less time talking to Congress and a lot more time talking to the American people," he said, when asked how he would respond to the current stalemate over the nation's debt ceiling. "It's going to take leadership, it's going to take reform, but I think it all begins with talking to the American people and telling them the truth about where we're headed in the national debt."

The Trump administration added nearly $7.8 trillion to the national debt, according to ProPublica, and Pence signaled that he wants to return to fiscally conservative government.

"I want to concede the fact that other than what we did to get the economy moving and rebuild our military, and other than what we did for families and businesses in the worst pandemic in a hundred years, I don't think our administration did everything we needed to do to restrain federal spending," he said.

Pence's visit to Utah comes a day after he testified before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., that is investigating Trump's role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump supporters had pressured Pence during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection to reject electoral votes cast for then-President-elect Joe Biden, though legal experts and Pence himself have said the vice president doesn't have that power.

Since then, Pence has had a complicated relationship with the former president and his supporters, and has emerged as a potential challenger to Trump. Last month, Pence said Trump's "reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable."

Pence said he's not at liberty to discuss his grand jury testimony publicly, and other than his interview with KSL NewsRadio, he didn't take questions from journalists.

In his speech, Pence declared Jan. 6 a "tragic day," but said he "shared the concern of millions of Americans about irregularities in the elections."

Although he's sympathetic to those who questioned the legitimacy of the election, Pence believes American institutions held together in light of the violence of Jan. 6.

"Jan. 6 was a tragic day, but thanks to the courage of law enforcement, violence was quelled. Members of both parties returned to the Capitol the very same day," he said. "And I believe a day of tragedy became a triumph for freedom because our institutions held, and I will always believe by God's grace ... that we did our duty that day under the Constitution of the United States."

Herbert acknowledged that Republicans "seem to be divided inside the party," and complained that young Americans are less likely to identify with either of the major parties.

"What do you think we should be doing?" he asked Pence. "Our young people are being attracted to socialism ... and dropping out of engagement. And they complain a lot, but they're not doing things. The future is our young people. What would you do as president to bring that about?"

But Pence seemed skeptical that there's a problem with younger Americans.

"I have to tell you, I'm so inspired by this generation. I'm absolutely convinced the young Americans today are the freedom generation," he said. "I mean, this is a generation that's grown up with the whole world at their fingertips ... you can't tell me that the generation that has grown accustomed to that kind of consumer choice, that kind of flow of information, is going to put up with socialism.

"This is the freedom generation, we just got to take the message of freedom to them."

With that in mind, Pence again turned his focus to the future, saying Republicans will be better served by looking ahead, not behind.

"Whatever the future holds for me and my incredible wife, I promise you we will cherish the support that we have from the people of Utah always, and we will never stop fighting to restore this nation to the ideals that have always made us strong and great and true," he said.

Pence is the second potential 2024 candidate to visit Utah in as many weeks, after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed delegates at Utah's Republican Party convention last Saturday at Utah Valley University.

Bridger Beal-Cvetko covers Utah politics, Salt Lake County communities and breaking news for KSL.com. He is a graduate of Utah Valley University.

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Former Vice President Mike Pence hints at presidential run in meeting with Utah leaders - KSL.com