Pence’s refusal to endorse the man whose presidency he served under is unprecedented in recent American history and deserves substantial media coverage. He joins dozens of high-level Trump appointees who have not publicly supported Trump’s campaign — including former national security advisers, defense secretaries, and chiefs of staff who have condemned the former president.
Pence presumably chose to announce that he “cannot in good conscience” endorse Trump during an interview with Fox anchor Martha MacCallum because he wanted to lay out his thinking for the network’s right-wing viewers in particular. He explained that his disputes with Trump go beyond “our difference on my constitutional duties that I exercised January 6th” — a relatively gentle way of referencing Trump’s demand that Pence illegally overturn the 2020 election — and criticized Trump for proposing “an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda.” He highlighted their disagreements on hot-button issues that divide the GOP, including federal debt, abortion, and foreign policy.
Fox is trying to make sure that as few of its viewers as possible hear Pence’s argument.
Host Neil Cavuto, one of the few voices at the network even occasionally critical of Trump, briefly discussed Pence’s announcement during a Friday afternoon segment.
The network’s flagship “news side” broadcast, Special Report with Bret Baier, relegated the news to its roundtable.
Host Laura Ingraham lashed out at Pence that evening, saying that he “should just go down to the border and start welcoming people in because he might as well do that and start working directly for Biden.”
Her fellow propagandists in Fox’s prime-time block all completely ignored the news, and no other show gave Pence’s repudiation of Trump more than a passing mention through Monday.
The former vice president provided a permission structure for Fox viewers to join him in declining to support Trump. But Fox is in the tank for Trump’s campaign, so the network buried the news that had broken on its airwaves.
Methodology
Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC for either of the terms “Pence” or “former vice president” within close proximity of either of the terms “Trump” or “former president” and also within close proximity of either of the terms “support” or “agenda” or any variations of any of the terms “vote,” “endorse” or “approve” from March 15, 2024, when Pence declined to endorse Trump during an interview on Fox News' The Story, through March 18, 2024.
We timed segments, which we defined as instances when former Vice President Mike Pence’s refusal to endorse GOP candidate Donald Trump for president was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of Pence's refusal to endorse. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed Pence's refusal to endorse with one another.
We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned Pence's refusal to endorse without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about Pence's refusal to endorse scheduled to air later in the broadcast.
We rounded all times to the nearest minute.
