Former US President Donald Trump and his Vice President Mike Pence have held opposing campaign rallies in Arizona, turning the governor’s race into a referendum on the future of the Republican Party.
Both Trump and Pence on Friday praised their administration’s accomplishments and criticized President Joe Biden, but neither directly mentioned the other or the growing feud between them.
Pence, who this week added his name to a list of Republican figures endorsing Karrin Taylor Robson, launched an indirect criticism of Republicans who continue to promote the lie that Trump lost the election by fraud.
If you elect Robson, he said, “you can send a clear message to the entire country that the Republican Party is the party of the future.”
Later on Twitter, he was more direct: “Some people want this election to be about the past, but elections are always about the future. Democrats would like nothing more than for Republicans to lose sight of the goal and focus on the past.”
Robson assures that the 2020 elections “were not clean” and accuses “liberal judges” of changing the rules during the process and the press and the technological giants of repressing conservative voices. But he has refrained from saying that Trump lost by fraud.
His main rival, former television presenter Kari Lake, has embraced Trump’s lies and his aggressive attitude towards his political enemies and the media.
“Nobody understands how to respond to the fake news press and the radical left better than Kari,” Trump said Friday night at his own campaign rally in Prescott Valley, one of the most conservative areas of Arizona.
Trump lashed out at two Arizona Republicans who refused to back his bid to stay in office after losing to Biden at the polls. He said state House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who testified last month before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault, “participated against the Republican Party.” He added that Governor Doug Ducey has failed to protect the border with Mexico.
Robson is an attorney and homebuilder who draws support from leading Republican figures who are increasingly comfortable breaking with Trump. In addition to Pence, her supporters include former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and limited-term Gov. Doug Ducey, who muted a call from Trump as he certified Democrat Biden’s 2020 presidential victory in Arizona.
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