Former Vice President Mike Pence began selling merchandise for his 2024 presidential campaign on Thursday that features a quote from his ex-boss, former President Donald Trump, according to Mediaite.
According to special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump earlier this week, the then-president called Pence on New Year’s Day in 2021 and “berated him,” saying he was “too honest” when Pence said he didn’t have the authority to return or reject votes.
Pence released his new merchandise, which consists of T-shirts and hats, in the wake of Trump’s third indictment — this one on charges stemming from his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
During an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Pence didn’t hold back his recollection of what Trump asked him to do during that call.
“The American people deserve to know that President Trump and his advisers didn’t just ask me to pause,” Pence reportedly said. “They asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election. And to keep faith with the oath that I made to the American people and to Almighty God, I rejected that out of hand.”
The former vice president has not yet met the donor threshold to appear on stage for the first Republican debate later this month.
NBC News reported that Pence’s campaign told donors on a Wednesday Zoom call that he had more than 30,000 unique donors currently and expected to reach 40,000 — and qualify for the debate — by sometime next week.
The Pence campaign seemed optimistic that the launch of the new merchandise would lead to a potential updraft in fundraising.
“Perhaps this new merch will be what puts us over the 40,000 donor threshold even earlier than we expected,” the campaign said in a statement to NBC.
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