WASHINGTON Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, in remarks announcing his challenge to Donald Trump, said the then-president had asked him to choose between him and the U.S. Constitution following their 2020 election loss and that anyone who put themselves above the founding document should not be president.

In a speech in Iowa kicking off his 2024 bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Pence said that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president and that anyone who asked someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again.

(Reporting by Timothy Reid and Susan Heavey)