Friday 17 June 2022 05:58 PM Mike Pence plows ahead with plans to run for president in 2024 trends now
Former Vice President Mike Pence defended his role in refusing Donald Trump's demand that he send back votes in an interview on the same day the House January 6th committee played video of an aide who said Trump called him a 'p****.'
Pence, who has not appeared before the committee, spoke as his former counsel Mark Jacob and former chief of staff Marc Short testified that they and Pence from the get-go a legal theory that the vice president had unilateral authority to reject certified votes.
Trump and a circle of advisors was clinging to that theory until the last days of his presidency, and saying both publicly and online January 6 that Pence lacked 'courage.'
'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.
'We did our duty,' former Vice President Mike Pence said of his decision not to accept electoral votes certified by states on Jan. 6th, when Congress met to count the votes that made Joe Biden president
It is a phrasing he has also used in public speeches – but came on a day when the House January 6th Committee focused attention on his pivotal role. The committee said rioters, some of whom were chanting to 'hang Mike Pence,' at one point were within 40 feet of him after the Secret Service rushed him out of his ceremonial office in the Senate.
Lawmakers including Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) saluted his bravery in resisting Trump and upholding his ceremonial role that day.
But Pence, who vouched for Trump through almost all of his four-year-term, did not denounce Trump or his agenda – at a time when Trump holds substantial sway over a Republican base and even edged out President Joe Biden in a new poll.
