Former Vice President Mike Pence mentioned Wednesday that he would favor a Republican different to former President Donald Trump within the 2024 presidential election.

“I feel we will have higher decisions” than Trump, Pence mentioned on CNBC’s “Squawk Field” when requested if the GOP ought to nominate somebody aside from the previous president subsequent yr. The potential 2024 candidate Pence didn’t explicitly rule out supporting Trump if he grew to become the GOP nominee.

The ex-vice president, who served beneath Trump within the White Home for 4 years, additionally appeared to take a gentle swipe at his former boss when discussing Republicans’ underperformance within the midterm elections.

“Our candidates that had been centered on the previous, significantly on relitigating the final election, didn’t do properly, together with in areas that we must always have achieved very properly,” Pence mentioned.

Pence is anticipated to be contemplating his personal presidential run — a transfer that would put him in direct competitors with Trump, who has attacked him for resisting Trump’s strain to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. After Pence mentioned on Jan. 6, 2021, that he would not go together with Trump’s scheme, a violent mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, sending the then-vice president and congressional lawmakers into hiding.

However Pence provided solely a cryptic reply about his presidential plans within the new interview Wednesday.

“I am going to maintain you posted,” Pence mentioned when requested if he sought the Republican presidential nomination.

Pence demurred as a few of his would-be challengers have begun to file into the GOP main. After a number of comparatively quiet months when Trump was the one notable Republican on the marketing campaign path, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley final week grew to become his first main main challenger. One other candidate, entrepreneur and right-wing tradition warrior Vivek Ramaswamy, entered the presidential race on Tuesday.

A number of different Republicans, together with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are believed to be gearing as much as announce their very own White Home bids.

As he stayed mum on the prospect of a presidential bid, Pence delved into a number of the thorniest coverage questions dealing with the nation. When requested about talks in Congress to lift the U.S. debt ceiling, and the prospect of reforming Medicare and Social Safety, he mentioned the U.S. ought to think about long-term modifications to the favored however costly packages.

Some Home Republicans have focused the packages as a part of a possible deal to lift the U.S. borrowing restrict, evoking sharp criticism from Democrats and prompting a protracted back-and-forth. Leaders of each events are vowing to not contact the entitlements.

“I am glad to see the Republican majority saying we have to use this debt ceiling to begin us again within the route of fiscal self-discipline, however look, everyone knows the place the true problem is by way of long-term debt,” Pence mentioned.

“I respect the speaker’s dedication to take Social Safety and Medicare off the desk for the debt ceiling negotiations. We have to place them on the desk in the long run,” Pence mentioned.

“We’re taking a look at a debt disaster on this nation over the subsequent 25 years that’s pushed by entitlements, and no person in Washington, D.C., desires to speak about it,” he mentioned.

Pressed on what reforms he would make, Pence mentioned there have been “numerous good concepts.” He referenced former President Ronald Reagan working to lift the retirement age, together with long-term private financial savings accounts. However “the primary job is to be straight, the second job is, get all people on the desk,” he mentioned.

The Trump administration didn’t pursue entitlement reforms. Confronted with that truth, Pence argued that the Trump administration’s first goal was to “get the financial system transferring once more” after a sluggish Obama-era restoration from the 2008 recession.

“Then historical past confirmed up within the type of Covid,” Pence mentioned — although he added, “I do not assume we did almost sufficient.”

Pence repeatedly mentioned the nation wanted “management” on the presidential stage, and mentioned the 2022 midterm outcomes confirmed that “elections are in regards to the future.”

“I imply, our candidates who had been centered on the problems affecting Individuals in the present day, and options for the long run, did very properly,” Pence mentioned. However “our candidates that had been centered on the previous, significantly on relitigating the final election, didn’t do properly, together with in areas that we must always have achieved very properly.”

Trump by no means conceded the 2020 election to Biden, and has spent the years since his loss falsely claiming that the race was tainted by widespread election fraud. A lot of Trump’s handpicked midterms candidates, who echoed these false claims or in any other case forged doubt on the 2020 consequence, misplaced in high-profile races.

“I do not assume anyone may have defeated Hillary Clinton aside from Donald Trump in 2016,” Pence instructed CNBC.

However now, he mentioned, “I truthfully hear individuals speaking to me very often about desirous to get again to the insurance policies, however desirous to return to the form of politics that makes it potential for us to tackle a few of these long-term, intractable issues.”