Mike Pompeo Says Trump Running Won’t Stop Him From Running in 2024

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CBS News senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge on Friday that he would run for president even if Donald Trump were in the race.

“If former President Trump seeks the Republican nomination. Would you stay out of the race?” Herridge asked.

“Not because of that,” Pompeo replied, later adding “it doesn’t make any difference who else decides to run or who else decides not to run” in his calculation to run for president.

Watch via Rumble:

CBS News reported:

What would keep him out of the race? It’s “an audacious decision to run for president,” Pompeo said. “For someone like me, it’s a that’s a very serious thing. And one has to conclude that they are best suited to lead this nation forward. And if we conclude we were the is the right time and it’s the right thing for me to do, we’ll run.”

“I will make the case to the American people that we are, and that I’m the right leader and that the American people get to make their decision,” he added.

Pompeo said that if he does decide to run, he will likely announce his bid in the spring. Pompeo, formerly a member of Congress, was both CIA director and secretary of state in the Trump administration. Since then, he’s written a book, “Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,” — and he’s also been working on his fitness — he told Fox News that he lost 90 pounds in six months.

And if it’s Trump who wins the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, Pompeo said he’ll vote for him with “no hesitation.”

NATIONAL POLL: Do You Still Support President Trump?

At this point, though, he’s still thinking about it. “We haven’t figured that out,” he said. “You know — one could draw a straight line there. One shouldn’t. That would be bad data management. I was fitter before I was in politics too, so this is not unique. You don’t have to decide you want to run for president to get healthier.”

Any announcement would come “somewhere after the first of the year, first caucuses and until the beginning of ’24. But sometime in the spring of next year, we will begin to turn our focus to trying to get that right.”

Watch the full interview below:

Donald Trump on Friday addressed rumors that some of his former cabinet officials may consider a presidential run in 2024.

Trump Addresses Rumors of Former Cabinet Officials Running in 2024