Mike Pence Declines to Endorse John McCain and Kelly Ayotte

Siding with his running mate, Mike Pence on Thursday declined to endorse John McCain and Kelly Ayotte in their upcoming reelection bids.

"I look forward to supporting Republican candidates in the days and weeks ahead all over the country, and so does Donald Trump," McCain told traveling press aboard his plane when asked point blank if he would endorse McCain and Ayotte.

"To restore our country at home and abroad, we need new leadership, and I'm looking forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with Donald Trump to drive that new leadership forward," he added.

The Indiana governor's non-endorsement got some blow-back. John Weaver,a former McCain aide (who more recently ran the Kasich campaign), tweeted that McCain campaigned for Pence when he was “desperate.”

"I remember traveling with John McCain to Indiana to campaign for, several times, for a desperate Mike Pence. Shame on him," Weaver tweeted.

Pence met privately with McCain on Tuesday while campaigning in Phoenix and heaped praise on the Arizona senator.

“Sen. McCain has provided the kind of leadership throughout his career that has stood up for our military stood up for a strong America and we talked about that and the need to have the kind of leadership in the White House that will rebuild the military,” he told ABC affiliate KNXV.

Pence's comments on McCain come a day after he broke with Trump over whether to endorse Paul Ryan in his reelection campaign. Trump said he was "not there yet" but Pence on Wednesday morning said he strongly supported the current Speaker of the House.

At a rally on Thursday, Trump said Pence had called him to ask for his permission to endorse Ryan.

"I say, 'Mike, you like him, yes. Go ahead and do it. 100 percent.' And he endorsed him," Trump said.

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