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Former Vice President Mike Pence over the weekend called former President Donald Trump’s speech “stupid” and said Trump’s speech was ahead of January’s Capitol storming. 6 he “died” with his family.
Trump has repeatedly refused to dismiss the group of supporters attacking the Capitol, and at one point Pence said that “Pence didn’t have the courage to do what needed to be done” while he was pushing a legal challenge to prevent the certification of his death. and trying to steal the election.
Pence, after a long pause, told ABC News anchor David Muir that the tweet “made me angry.”
“I turned to my daughter who was standing nearby,” he said. “So I said, ‘It doesn’t take courage to break the law, it takes courage to uphold the law.'” The president’s words are just nonsense. It’s clear he decided to get into trouble.”
“The president’s words that day at the conference disturbed me and my family and everyone in the Capitol building,” he added.
Pence spoke during a huddle at the Capitol with officials from the Department of Defense and the Justice Department in an effort to quell the unrest.
“Where has the president been all this time?” Muir asked.
“David, I was at the Capitol. I’m not at the White House,” Pence said. “I can’t comment on what the president did that day.
“But why didn’t he call?” Muir pressed on.
“That’s a good question for him,” Pence replied.
The interview was part of Pence’s tour to promote his new book “So Help Me God.” Pence wrote that Trump complained that he was “very honest” when Pence rejected the idea that he could block the certification of the election on January 6 and revealed the actions of the president of before pressuring him, according to information published by the New York Times.
“Hundreds of thousands hate your guts,” Pence recalled Trump telling him. “People will think you’re stupid.”
Pence also wrote that Trump worked with attorney John Eastman to push him into a project that has put both men under legal scrutiny.
“You’re going to go down as a wimp,” Trump told Pence on the morning of Jan. 6, according to the book. “If you do that, I made a big mistake five years ago!”
Pence also wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week as he tries to re-nominate himself as the Jan. 6 winner, detailing what he said to Trump before and after the scandal.
“Were you scared?” Pence reminded Trump of the question in the days following the scandal.
“‘No,’ I replied, ‘I was angry. You and I were different that day, Mr. President, and seeing those people tearing up the Capitol made me angry,'” Pence said. to Trump.
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Although Pence has been more vocal about Jan. 6 to promote his book, the former veep declined to sit down for an interview with the House committee Jan. 6 and complain about the party, according to the New York Times.
Pence’s book and other public comments will have implications for the Justice Department and the committee on Jan. 6, wrote MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin, “could include Pence’s speech and witness testimony on the same topics in his final report.”
“A lawyer tells me the O’Neill house will turn the pages angrily,” he wrote, referring to the house where the committee is working.
NYU Law Professor Ryan Goodman agreed the committee’s report could include Pence’s comments but “the DOJ has little choice but to question Pence.”
Other law enforcement officials blasted Pence for talking about selling his book but not telling investigators looking for responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack.
“It’s not really a story of courage here from Mike Pence and we have to send this interview to January 6 [committee] in the first month,” tweeted Former US Attorney Joyce White Vance. “He’s doing it now to try and revive a political career, but he’s not doing it for the right reasons before, because it makes a difference.”
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