Doubtful, but if it were true, I wouldn't be surprised. Even then, if there's any truth to these rumors at all, it's probably a case of Pence encouraging Trump to cut his losses if they can't gain any real wins before the 14th of December.
Pence is a literal traditionalist and a relic of the old "Neocons and Fundies" GOP paradigm of the Reagan and Bush years. But he's more inclined towards the Bible Belt aspect than the neocon aspect.
The fact he's not an explicit neocon means he could probably still keep his career as a state-level politician and unlike Trump, is less of a lightning rod (no pun intended) for Woke Leftist hatred since he's much less of a public figure.
Still, Pence strikes me as the kind of guy who will stick by Trump as long as he can but will keep his head down no matter which way this goes down.
I think Al Gore would be the kind of person who'd go charging into the sandbox but then cut his losses for the PR boost if things quagmired as badly as they did under Bush.
The Europeans would probably have a more favorable view of him since he's less of an ornery redneck than Bush was and wasn't openly tied to the Religious Right. Even if the fundies were an exclusively American thing by 2000, they were commonly cited as a reason why the rest of the world hated America in the Bush years and why the more secular and well-spoken Obama was so beloved by the EU despite the fact he was every bit a corporatist and globalist as Bush was.
Granted, I'm not entirely sure what the media coverage of Bush and the American Religious Right was like in the UK and Europe back then. I'm sure
@Pointless Pedant and
@Judge Holden can probably give a good view of the British perspective while
@Lemmingwise can give a mainland European view.
I do know American media talking heads often cited the fundies at the time as a major focal point of anti-American sentiment but I'm honestly unsure how much of that was legit versus how much was typical 2000's atheist sperging or progressives invoking what had become a common boogeyman by that point