Mike Pence has called on the Justice Department to not prosecute Donald Trump for his handling of classified documents but refused to say he would pardon the former president if he won the White House. The former vice president told a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, that he viewed the handling of classified material as “a very serious matter” but told host Dana Bash that federal prosecutors should leave Mr Trump alone. “I would hope not, I really would,” he said when asked if the DoJ special counsel Jack Smith should indict Mr Trump over the documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate. “I think it would be terribly divisive to the country at a time when the American people are hurting. This kind of action by the DoJ would only fuel further division in the country and send a terrible message to the wider world…I hope the DoJ thinks better of it and resolves this in a better way than an indictment,” he continued. Mr Pence told the audience that “no one is above the law” and admitted that he himself had no business having some classified documents at his home in Indiana. “I took full responsibility for it. I would hope there would be a way to move forward without the dramatic, drastic steps of indicting a former president of the United States.” Bash then directly asked Mr Pence, who earlier in the day officially launched his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, if as president he would pardon Mr Trump if he was convicted. “I don’t want to speak about hypotheticals. I am not sure I am going to be elected president of the United States but I believe we have a fighting chance,” he said. Mr Pence was also asked to respond to Mr Trump’s claim he would pardon anyone convicted of taking part in the violent January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. “You know on January 6 I issued a tweet demanding that people leave the Capitol and end the violence and said those who didn’t should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and I believe that today,” he said. “We cannot ever allow what happened on January 6 to ever happen again. I have no interest or intention of pardoning those who assaulted police officers or vandalized the capitol.” Read More Mike Pence news – live: At CNN town hall Pence says he won’t pardon Jan 6 protesters who called for his death Mike Pence isn’t even a contender for 2024. Why are we pretending? Pence accuses Trump of treating abortion issue as an ‘inconvenience’

Ukraine’s capital was hit by a missile barrage overnight, the 19th such attack in the last month. While

Tristan Tate finds himself presently placed under house arrest after he and his brother were unsuccessful in their appeal at the Court of Appeal

Wall Street was poised to open with declines over worries about a possible U.S. government shutdown and the reality that interest rates will be elevated for an extended period

Polls closed in Ecuador Sunday with no reports of violence as both presidential candidates cast their votes in bulletproof vests just weeks...

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy acknowledged that the debt-ceiling deal negotiated with the White House is likely to face

It was a shorter distance through US history from the White House to the Soviet Union or North Korea than to an autoworkers picket line in Michigan.

India’s overall unemployment rate fell in July as rural areas saw increased demand for agriculture labor with the

Chocolate maker Barry Callebaut AG delayed its date for selling 100% sustainably sourced cocoa as part of a

The British billionaire owner of Premier League side Tottenham, Joe Lewis, was arrested on Wednesday ahead of a court appearance in New York on insider...

Authorities say a pilot escaped with only minor injuries after a single-engine plane crashed nose-first into the roof of a hangar at a Southern California airport

Campaigners say some Afghans who worked with the British military have not been allowed to come to the UK.