If former Vice President Mike Pence has anything to do with it, Donald J. Trump will not be the Republican nominee for president in 2024.  Pence is hitting the airwaves to flog his new memoir, “So Help Me God,” and his old boss, former President Trump.  The man who Trump berated as a “wimp” for refusing the reject the 2020 election results is not pulling his punches.  In his first network news interview since the January 6th Capitol Hill riots, Pence tells ABC News, “I think we’ll have better choices” than Trump in 2024.

One of those choices may be Mike Pence.  The staunch Evangelical says that he and his wife are giving it “prayerful consideration.”  But if Florida Governor Ron DeSantis throws his sun visor into the ring, both Trump and Pence will need more than prayers to clinch the top spot.  A new YouGov poll conducted immediately after last week’s MAGA meltdown finds that “more Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents now say they'd prefer DeSantis (42%) as their 2024 presidential nominee over Trump than say they'd prefer Trump to DeSantis (35%).”  

Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, who hails from the Trumpiest state in the union (Trump carried Wyoming with 70% of the vote in 2020)), tells Politico, “Ron DeSantis is the leader of the Republican Party, whether he wants to be or not.”  Music to an ambitious politician’s ears.  Inside Washington’s bet: He wants to.