How could this have happened?
Twitter and certain news outlets sparked immense controversy after it was suggested that former Vice President Mike Pence had officially entered the 2024 presidential race challenging his former boss Donald Trump.
Rumors began to swirl after a “statement of candidacy” was filed with the FEC on Mike Pence’s behalf saying that he was going to run however a spokesperson from his office said that Pence did not actually file that paperwork.
According to Fox, spokesman Devin O’Malley explained, “Former Vice President Mike Pence did not file to run for President today.”
It appears that someone actually pranked Mike Pence by filing a statement of candidacy on his behalf.
When news organizations reached out to the FEC they declined to comment however they did explain that they have a process for filtering out fake or fictitious forms.
The fraudulent statement of candidacy which was filed for Pence was filed as “Mr Mike Richard Pence” at 5:12 p.m. on Monday. The FEC has Pence’s first name listed as “Michael” not “Mike”.
While it has now been learned that Pence is not running for the 2024 presidential election, he has hinted about running in the past.
When speaking to Fox News in early December, Pence hinted at a 2024 run and said, “The fact that people are now getting to know me and my family, our faith, our conservative convictions better, has been a great source of encouragement as we think about the way forward and what our calling might be in the future.”