Former Vice President Mike Pence has pledged he will not allow Democrats to use events of 6 January “to distract attention from their failed agenda or to demean the intentions of 74 million Americans who rallied behind our cause.”
Pence, speaking in a taped interview for Fox News Digital on the sidelines of a speech on economic policy at the University Club in Chicago, touched upon the breach of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. At the time crowds of protesters, including scores of Trump supporters, attempted to prevent lawmakers from certifying the 2020 election results, which Donald Trump claimed were rigged.
"January 6 was a tragic day, and I know we did our duty, but I will always be proud of our record," Pence told Fox News in a reference to his record with the 45th POTUS.
Currently, lawmakers on the House 6 January Select Committee are holding public hearings as part of their probe into the attack on the Capitol. They have alleged that Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was ‘stolen’ from him stoked the violence.
Mike Pence told Fox News that after the 2020 election, he "had concerns about voting irregularities."
"I had hoped that the courts—including the Supreme Court—would have taken up and considered the fact that a number of states had changed rules governing elections. But, ultimately, the courts passed on them, and the electoral college certified the outcome, and I knew that my oath was clear."
At the time of the Capitol events, Trump had tweeted that Pence, who was overseeing the certification of Electoral College votes in the Senate, “didn’t have the courage to do what was necessary” and overturn the official results.
Reflecting on that day, Mike Pence said in the Fox interview that "by God’s grace," he knows he did his "duty that day, under the Constitution."
The ex-VP touted his record with Trump, as well as his relationship after the 45th president exited the White House.
"We were very close friends. We parted very amicably on Jan. 20. I don’t know if the president and I will ever see eye to eye on my duties on Jan. 6, but, in the aftermath of that tragic day, we sat down, and we talked through it. And then we rolled our sleeves up and finished the final weeks of our administration working together.”
Mike Pence touted Trump as having been a president who “worked in the midst of an avalanche of hostile media, and the entire Russia hoax” hanging over the administration.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s years-long investigation into Democrat-spouted claims of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election had proved the accusations to be unsubstantiated.
Mike Pence emphasized that he would “always be proud of the record we created," adding, "We delivered for the American people."
When asked about his own 2024 presidential ambitions, Pence told Fox News he was "not a long-term planner.”
"First things first—we need to win the midterm elections, we need to elect and re-elect Republican governors around the country—and I put equal importance on those two things—winning the Congress and winning the state houses is of equal importance," he stated.
Ahead of the interview, when addressing an audience at the University Club of Chicago Mike Pence contended that Democratic President Joe Biden was to blame for the nation’s current economic problems.
“The economic woes now upon us have been caused almost single-handedly by one person: the 46th president of the United States of America, Joe Biden," Pence said.
He emphasized that surging fuel, food and housing prices were the result of the Biden administration's ‘war on energy,’ and not the impacts of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, as the Democratic POTUS has maintained.
“The truth is, the majority of Americans know that President Biden’s economic policies have failed utterly and completely and it is time for a change of direction for America,” Pence said, adding that the Biden administration had “squandered American prosperity faster than any other administration in the history of our country.” Mike Pence concluded by accusing Joe Biden of offering “plenty of excuses but few solutions.”