Mike Pence has delivered his harshest criticism yet of Donald Trump and his role in the Capitol riots in 2021. Source: Gage Skidmore
Former US vice president Mike Pence has said that history will hold former US President Donald Trump “accountable”, Pence’s harshest criticism of the man he served under from 2017 to 2021.
“President Trump was wrong,” Pence told an audience filled with politicians and journalists at the annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington DC on Saturday evening.
“I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
The remarks are Pence’s harshest criticism yet, and are likely to widen the rift in the Republican party about the actions and ethics of their former leader, Trump.
Pence and Trump themselves have been at odds ever since Pence refused to back Trump’s efforts to overthrow the 2020 US election results.
In the days leading to the January 6, 2021 riots, Trump pressured Pence to overturn the election of President Joe Biden as Pence would preside over the ceremonial certification of the results — a demand that Pence refused.
During the riots, some of the thousands called for Pence to be hanged over his inaction, forcing him to hide in a safe location inside the Capitol.
He remained in the Capitol as the rioters stormed the building in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the election results.
“Make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace, and it mocks decency to portray it any other way,” Pence said at the Gridiron Dinner.
He also took the opportunity to poke fun at Trump regarding the classified documents the FBI found at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home, “I read that some of those classified documents they found at Mar-a-Lago were actually stuck in the president’s Bible. Which proves he had absolutely no idea they were there.”
Trump has already announced his intention to run again for election in 2024, with Pence indicating during the speech that he may challenge Trump for the Republican nomination, when voters will elect who will lead the party into the presidential election.
However, previously Pence has shied away from challenging Trump himself, instead saying he would back an alternative to Trump’s nomination.
