On Saturday, former Vice President Mike Pence slammed former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riots at the US Capitol, widening the rift between the two men as they prepare to run for the Republican nomination at the next elections to fight year.
“President Trump was wrong,” Pence said during a speech at the White-Tie Gridiron Dinner attended by politicians and journalists. “I had no right to overturn the elections. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
Pence’s comments were the harshest condemnation yet of the once-loyal lieutenant, who has often avoided confronting his former boss. Trump has already declared his candidacy. Pence didn’t, but he laid the groundwork for execution.
In the days leading up to January 6, 2021, Trump pressured Pence to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory while presiding over the certification ceremony of the results. Pence refused, and as rioters stormed the Capitol, some chanted they wanted to “hang Mike Pence.” The House committee investigating the attack said in its final report that ” the president of the United States had riled up a mob that hunted his own vice president.”
With his comments, Pence cemented his place in a broader debate within the Republican Party about how to view the attack. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, for example, recently provided Tucker Carlson with a January 6 security camera file that the Fox News host used to downplay the day’s events and promote conspiracy theories. “Make no mistake, what happened that day was a disgrace,” Pence said in his Gridiron Dinner remarks. “And it mocks decency to portray it any other way.”
Meanwhile, Trump continues to spread lies about his election defeat. He even spoke out for the rioters, saying he would consider pardoning them if he were re-elected.
Speeches at the Gridiron Dinner are often humorous affairs, with politicians making fun of one another, and Pence has done much of the same. Joked that Trump’s ego was so fragile he wanted his vice president to sing “Wind Beneath My Wings,” one of the lines was “Did you ever know you were my hero?” ? during their weekly luncheons.
He shot Trump again over secret documents.” I read that some of these classified documents that they found at Mar-a-Lago were actually locked in the President’s Bible,” Pence said. “Proves he had no idea they were there.”
Before dinner was over, Pence was being criticized for his jokes about Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg, the first openly gay Cabinet member in US history. Pence mentioned that despite Americans’ travel woes, Buttigieg took “maternity leave” after he and her husband adopted newborn twins. “Pete is the only person in human history who has had a child and everyone else has postpartum depression,” Pence said.
GNB Desk with AP.
