In an interview on the same day that a House committee broadcast video of an aide saying Trump called him a “p****,” former Vice President Mike Pence defended his role in defying Donald Trump’s demand that he bring back votes.
Pence, who did not testify before the committee, said as his former counsel Mark Jacob and former chief of staff Marc Short testified that they and Pence had developed a legal theory that the vice president had unilateral authority to reject certified ballots from the beginning.
Trump and a circle of advisers clung to that view until the final days of his administration, accusing Pence of lacking “courage” both publicly and online on January 6.
‘Ultimately, I believe that most Americans understand that we did our duty that day under the Constitution and the laws of this country,’ Pence told the Wall Street Journal.
It’s a phrase he’s used before in public addresses, but it occurred on a day when the House Committee on the 6th of January focused on his critical role. After the Secret Service hustled him out of his ceremonial office in the Senate, protestors, some of whom were yelling “hang Mike Pence,” were within 40 feet of him, according to the committee.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) praised him for standing up to Trump and maintaining his ceremonial function on that day.
But Pence, who has backed Trump for virtually his entire four-year term, has refused to criticize him or his plan – despite the fact that Trump has a sizable Republican following and has even beaten out Vice President Joe Biden in a new poll.
‘The president and I had very different styles, we’re different men,’ he told the paper.
‘But we were working shoulder-to-shoulder…and we delivered for the American people,’ he said.
The interview does not quote Pence discussing the 2024 nomination battle – although a headline says he ‘plots’ a 2024 bid.
He has an economic speech planned in Chicago Monday, is ‘expected’ to form a new super PAC, has a book deal, and is ‘expected’ to keep traveling to early voting states Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. That checks several of the boxes of activities presidential candidates usually engage in, amid chatter that Trump might make his own announcement after the midterms.
He has also started to refine his attacks on President Biden, who gave his own interview Thursday to defend his efforts to combat inflation.
‘Everywhere I go across the country, I can tell you, the American people are hurting,’ said Pence. ‘Inflation [is] at a 40-year high, $5-a-gallon gas and higher, the crisis at our border that I saw firsthand on Monday. A crime wave impacting our cities. It’s one of the reasons I’m so determined to be out supporting candidates for the House, the Senate and governors.’
The New York Times previously reported that the pressure continued up until the morning of of Jan. 6, when Trump told Pence: ‘“You can be a patriot or you can be a p****.”
Asked by ABC’s Jonathan Karl about the quote after he left office, Trump replied: ‘I wouldn’t dispute it.’
The committee played video testimony of aide Julia Radford, former Ivanka Trump chief of staff, who testified that Trump used the ‘p-word’ in a conversation with Pence that day. Former Trump White House assistant Nicholas Luna said he heard Trump call Pence a “wimp” on a call.