On Sunday, former Vice President Mike Pence denounced the debunked conspiracy theory that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation was responsible for instigating the January 6, 2021 attack or “insurrection”. Pence was the VP under former President Donald Trump, who is taking on new legal battles as Maine and Colorado have pushed him off of their primary election ballots after citing an insurrection clause in the US Constitution as their reasoning.
“I’ve seen the director of the FBI repeatedly assure the American people that the FBI were not the instigators of the riot that occurred on January 6. And frankly I’m very grateful for the efforts of the FBI to bring nearly 1,000 people to justice who ransacked our capital and who did violence against police officers that day,” the former VP told an American news reporter.
“We’ve been assured again and again that it was not the case,” he continued.
“I just must tell you, having been there that day, to see people literally breaking windows, ransacking the Capitol, it just infuriated me. I remember thinking ‘not this, not here, not at the United States Capitol,’” Pence added.
Pence’s statement is in response to a recent poll which found that a quarter of Americans believe the FBI was responsible for instigating the January 6 US Capitol attack. Even after detailed congressional investigations and about 700 defendants pleaded guilty to crimes committed during the attack, the debunked conspiracy theory has continued to be pushed.
At least 34% of Republicans believe this conspiracy theory to be true, compared to 30% of independents and 13% of Democrats. And at least 44% of those who voted for Trump believe the conspiracy theory that the FBI instigated the January 6 attack, the poll also found.
During the criminal hearings which stemmed from the attack, attorneys for January 6 defendants have blamed Trump for their clients behavior, and cited Trump’s encouragements to “fight like hell” as well as his debunked voter fraud claims.
Trump continues to encourage such theorizing as well. Speaking at a rally in Sioux, Center Iowa on Friday---the day before the anniversary of the attack---he said: “By the way, there was Antifa, there was FBI, there were a lot of other people there too leading the charge,”
In reference to Trump’s struggle to stay on primary election ballots in the states of Maine and Colorado, Pence was asked if he believes Trump engaged in insurrection on January 6, 2021.
“I’ve never called what happened on January 6 an insurrection,” Pence said. “It is noteworthy that even in the federal case in Washington, DC the president hasn’t been charged with insurrection.”
“I was there, it was a riot, the way it broke out. And I’ve never seen it any other way. And while I said the president's words were reckless—and I believe that history and the American people will hold him ultimately to account for his role in that day—I think these efforts to take the decisions away from the American people are antithetical to the very democracy that President Biden and many Democrats talk about wanting to defend," said Pence.
“I’m very confident that the American people will choose wisely, I’m confident that we’ll run our elections, but removing the former president or any other candidate from the choice of the American people I don’t believe is in the interest of the country and I have reason to be confident that the Supreme Court of the United States will see it just that way,” Pence concluded.
During his rally on Friday in Iowa, Trump warned that the US would be in “big, big trouble” should the US Supreme Court side with Colorado in their case against Trump.
Colorado’s Supreme Court determined last month that the former president’s name should be barred from the state’s primary ballot over his role in the January 6 insurrection, citing the 14th Amendment's insurrection clause. He was removed from the ballot in Maine, which cited the same clause. Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team continues to battle four criminal indictments against the former president which are spread out across four different states.