Former Vice President Mike Pence lashed out at former President Donald Trump during an interview on Wednesday, a day after Trump was charged with four felonies related to the hotly contested 2020 election.
Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy against the rights of citizens, and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.
The 45-page indictment cited notes taken by Pence of his conversations with Trump after the election and before the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion.
When the indictment was announced, Pence sided with the Justice Department in a Twitter thread in which he attacked Trump.
Wednesday afternoon, he doubled down on his criticism in a Fox News interview.
While speaking with network host Martha MacCallum, Pence said Trump did not ask him to “pause” the certification of the election results in 2020, as the host asserted.
“Let’s, let’s be clear on this point, it wasn’t just to ask for a ‘pause,’” Pence said.
He continued, “The president specifically asked me, and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me, to literally reject votes, which would have resulted in the issue being turned over to the House of Representatives, and literally chaos would have ensued.”
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Pence said people who are critical of his decision not to reject slates of electors on Jan. 6 should “read the indictment” from Smith.
“The American people deserve to know that President Trump and his advisers didn’t just ask me to pause, they asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election,” he said.
PENCE: “The President specifically asked me and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me to literally reject votes…” pic.twitter.com/93iQLi2LE8
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 2, 2023
Pence said he rejected Trump’s request “out of hand” and that he did his “duty.”
The former vice president and current 2024 presidential hopeful was accused by at least one viewer of being a “swamp creature.”
Pence is a swamp creature.
— MatthewJshow (@MatthewJshow) August 2, 2023
Trump also quickly responded to Pence’s remarks in a post on Truth Social and returned fire.
Pence has been polling in the low single digits since he announced his candidacy.
