Mike Pence has declined to say whether he will support Donald Trump if the former US president becomes the Republican nominee for the next election.
The former vice president, when asked twice whether would support Mr Trump in the 2024 election, did not commit to an affirmative answer.
Instead, Mr Pence said during a CBS interview that voters will choose “wisely again as they did in 2016”, but insisted “different times call for different leadership”.
He said: “I’m very confident we’ll have better choices come 2024… and I’m confident our standard-bearer will win the day in November of that year.”
Republican candidates to have declared bids to run so far include Trump, Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, and biotech multimillionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, while Florida governor Ron DeSantis is also being tipped to stand.
Mr Pence, who has also been touted as a potential candidate for the Republican nomination, said he was “continuing to give prayerful consideration to entering the race”.
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The 63-year-old added that if he chose to run he would bring a “broad conservative agenda that characterised [his] life and career”.
If he ran, he promised a “strong national defence… standing up for America’s place as leader of the free world confronting aggression” be it in “eastern Europe… or in the Asia Pacific”.
Previously, the former vice president had said he would make a decision on the presidential race “by the spring”.
In an interview with NBC News, he said: “If I’m a candidate, I’m sure I’ll meet whatever the requirement is for debates.”
Meanwhile, Mr Trump, who kicked off his White House bid at the end of January, could face legal action over the 2021 Capitol riots in his effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
The former president can be sued by injured Capitol Police officers and Democratic lawmakers over the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol, the justice department said on Thursday.