The separate appearances marked an intensifying rivalry between the one-time partners as both eye potential presidential contenders. And they clearly show the partisan divisions between Trump loyalists who refuse to accept the 2020 results and other Republicans who believe the party should focus on the future. Federal and state election officials from both parties and Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence that the 2020 election was tainted. The former president’s claims of fraud have also been rejected by the courts, including by judges he appointed. But Trump continued to deny his loss as he made his first appearance in the nation’s capital since Jan. 20, 2021, when President Joe Biden was sworn into office despite Trump’s frantic efforts to stay in office. “This election was a disaster,” Trump said about a mile from the White House he once called home. He spoke at a summit organized by a group of former White House officials and cabinet members who were working on an agenda for a possible second Trump administration. In a nod to an increasingly teasing 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said “we might have to do it again.” Pence, once a staunch Trump vice president, spoke Tuesday morning at a separate conference where he outlined his own “Freedom Agenda” and argued that conservatives need to stop looking backwards. “Some people may choose to focus on the past, but the election is about the future,” Pence said in a speech to the Young America’s Foundation, a student conservative group. “I think conservatives need to focus on the future to win America back. We cannot afford to take our eyes off the road ahead because what is at stake is the very survival of our way of life.” Trump, too, said America’s survival was at stake. In a speech he called focused on public safety, he said the country was in immediate danger from crime. Among his proposals, he called for executing drug dealers, sending the homeless to tent cities on the outskirts of cities and extending the southwest wall along its border. Biden chimed in — on Twitter — rejecting Trump’s claim that he was a law-and-order president. Referring to the riot on Capitol Hill, he tweeted: “I don’t think inciting a mob to attack a police officer is ‘respecting the law.’ You can’t be pro-insurgency and pro-police — neither pro-democracy, nor pro-American.” Trump, in his remarks, spent plenty of time airing his usual grievances. “If I renounced my beliefs, if I agreed to remain silent, if I stayed home and just took it easy, the prosecution of Donald Trump would stop immediately,” he said. “But that’s not what I’m going to do.” The dueling appearances came as Trump’s potential rivals have become increasingly brazen in their intelligence to directly criticize the man who remains a dominant force in the Republican Party. Former White House aides also campaigned for rival candidates in Arizona on Friday. And their speeches on Tuesday came amid news that Pence’s former chief of staff, Mark Short, testified before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Short was on Capitol Hill that day as Pence fled an angry mob of rioters who called for his hanging after Trump wrongly insisted that Pence had the power to overturn the election results. Pence has repeatedly defended his actions that day, even as his decision to stand up to his boss turned large parts of Trump’s loyal base against him. Polls show Trump remains, by far, the top choice of GOP primary voters, with Pence trailing far behind. That contrast was on display Tuesday as Trump addressed an audience of hundreds of cheering supporters gathered for the America First Policy Institute’s two-day America First Agenda Summit. The group is widely seen as an “administration-in-waiting” that could quickly be moved to the West Wing if Trump runs again and wins. The event had the feel of a Trump White House reunion — but without Pence. Pence, meanwhile, received a friendly – but less exuberant – reception from the students, who were fighting to invade the “USA!” chant. In his remarks, he repeatedly touted the “Trump-Pence government.” But the first question he took during a brief question-and-answer session was about his growing estrangement from Trump, which is especially stark given the years he spent as the former president’s most loyal aide. Pence denied that the two “differ on issues” but acknowledged that “we may differ on focus.” “I truly believe that the election is about the future and that it is absolutely necessary, at a time when so many Americans are hurting and so many families are struggling, that we not give in to the temptation to look back,” he said. . Trump has spent much of his time since leaving office spreading lies about his loss to cast doubt on Biden’s victory. Indeed, even as a Jan. 6 House committee exposed his efforts to stay in office and his refusal to withdraw a violent mob of his supporters as they tried to stop a peaceful transition of power, Trump continued to try to push officials to overturn Biden’s victory, despite the fact that there is no legal means to validate it. Beyond the summit, the America First Policy Institute is preparing for another possible Trump administration, “making sure we have the policies, personnel and process in place for every key agency when we take back the White House,” its president said. , Brooke Rollins. The group is one of several Trump-allied organizations that have continued to push his policies in his absence, including America First Legal, dedicated to fighting Biden’s agenda through the court system, the Center for American Renewal and the Conservative Institute Cooperation. Also Tuesday, Simon & Schuster announced the title of Pence’s upcoming book, So help me God, to be published in November. The publisher said the book, in part, will chronicle “President Trump’s termination of their relationship on January 6, 2021, when Pence fulfilled his oath to the Constitution.” The Morning Update and Afternoon Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.
