The clip was edited to omit the crucial first three words of Pence’s statement: "I could never …"
On Oct. 13, 2024, a video spread (archived) on X, allegedly showing former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence endorsing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for president and vice president. "Drumroll please..... Pence endorses VP Harris & Governor Walz," the caption on the video read. One X post (archived) with the clip reached more than 485,000 views as of this writing.
"Pence announces he is voting for Kamala Harris and will not be endorsing #donaldtrump 💙💙💙💙💙," read a Threads post with the clip. "This is a disgrace. A former running mate encouraging people to vote other side? You are banned from republican party," a user commented.
The footage also spread on TikTok. Google reverse image search results showed similar videos started circulating online in August 2024.
In short, the video in question featured authentic footage clipped from Pence's Aug. 9, 2024, appearance at The Gathering, an event hosted by talk radio pundit Erick Erickson, who interviewed Pence. However, the clip was edited to remove crucial parts of Pence's actual statement — namely, the words "I could never," which he uttered before he said, "vote for Kamala Harris as President of the United States or Tim Walz as her running mate."
As a result, the edited video (transcript below) misleadingly suggested Pence endorsed Harris and Walz (which he did not). The edited video continued with Pence voicing criticisms of former President Donald Trump (with whom he served):
Vote for Kamala Harris as President of the United States or Tim Walz as her running mate, period, paragraph. And I think it's important that we understand exactly what's coming down the tracks from the other side. But in the same breath I also think we also need to think about who we are as conservatives.
Between me and my former running mate I cannot endorse President Trump's continuing assertion that I should have set aside my oath to support and defend the Constitution, and acted in a way that it would have overturned the election in January of 2021.
I just cannot endorse this growing abandonment of our allies on the world stage that's taken hold in parts of our party. I cannot endorse ignoring our national debt that reached $35 trillion just in the last week.
The video clip was stitched together from pieces of three separate statements Pence made during the interview, which was shared in full on Erickson's YouTube channel on Aug. 12:
This is what Pence actually said about voting for Harris and Walz (between 5:42 and 6:05, omitted words in bold):
[I could never] vote for Kamala Harris as President of the United States or Tim Walz as her running mate, period, paragraph. And I think it's important that we understand exactly what's coming down the tracks from the other side. But in the same breath I also think we also need to think about who we are as conservatives.
The middle paragraph of the edited video was extracted from another part of Pence's answer, which begins at about 8:08 in the YouTube video (omitted words in bold):
[I cannot support marginalizing the right to life in our party as we saw on the national platform, and] between me and my former running mate I cannot endorse President Trump's continuing assertion that I should have set aside my oath to support and defend the Constitution, and acted in a way that it would have overturned the election in January of 2021.
Pence uttered the following sentences at around the 7:40 mark (omitted words in bold):
[So for me, while we have to make it clear to the American people what's wrong and what's failed about the Biden-Harris administration and the new Harris-Walz team, I think we have to make sure that we hew to our roots in this conservative movement. And for my part, you know, I'm staying out of the presidential campaign, for the reason that] I just cannot endorse this growing abandonment of our allies on the world stage that's taken hold in parts of our party. I cannot endorse ignoring our national debt that reached $35 trillion just in the last week.
For further reading, in March 2024 we investigated whether Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, underwent fertility procedures including in vitro fertilization. In January 2024 we looked at claims that a photograph showed Pence signing an Israeli army artillery shell.