Mike Pence demands an apology from Donald Trump for dinner with right

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Mike Pence (center) with Donald Trump and Nancy Pelosi at the White House (2018)

Photo: Evan Vucci / dpa

During their joint tenure, Vice President Mike Pence was considered loyal to his then boss Donald Trump – despite a whole series of gaffes and scandals.

Trump is now applying again for the White House and Pence is also said to have ambitions.

However, this time on the executive chair.

This is probably one of the reasons why clear words are now coming from the Pence camp.

Trump's dinner with rapper Kanye West, which also included far-right nationalist Nick Fuentes, calls for a public apology, Pence told NewsNation on Monday (local time).

"I think the President exercised extremely poor judgment in allowing these individuals to sit at the table."

Both Fuentes and West, who now calls himself Ye, are known for spreading conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slogans.

"It was wrong for President Trump to give a seat at the table to a white nationalist, an anti-Semite and a Holocaust denier, and I think he should apologize for that," Pence said.

He does not believe that Trump is an anti-Semite or racist - otherwise he would not have worked for him.

However, Trump should publicly condemn the "hateful rhetoric" of his guests.

Dinner with fringe figures like Fuentes and Ye

Trump received West and Fuentes last week at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida estate.

When there was criticism, he claimed not to have known Fuentes.

However, this version is widely questioned.

Trump wrote about West in the network he co-founded "Truth Social": "Anyway, we got along well, he expressed no anti-Semitism."

Pence, 63, was once a loyal Trump ally but has recently distanced himself from his former boss.

He recently said he was considering running for president and then he was ready to run against Trump.

The ex-president, who is 13 years his senior, declared almost two weeks ago that he wanted to run for the White House again for the Republicans in 2024.

However, the enthusiasm in their own party is still manageable.

This is especially true after the midterm elections in early November.

Quite a few critics also attribute the weak performance of the Republicans to Trump.

Numerous candidates hand-picked by him had failed miserably, while more moderate contenders had fared better overall.

jok/dpa