Pence, in an announcement speech on Wednesday, said Trump had abandoned conservative positions, divided the country and was wrong to ask him to violate his oath to the US Constitution and overturn the 2020 election during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

"Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again," Pence said in Iowa, which has the first-in-the-nation GOP caucuses and where he's concentrating his campaign.