Former Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday defended not taking preemptive action before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. (Watch the video below.)
Asked by CNN host Kaitlan Collins if perhaps he should have spoken out against Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud before the siege, Pence said he was hopeful Trump would “come around” and surrender his stance and his belief that Pence had the authority to overturn the results. “Sadly, things went downhill from there,” Pence added.
Collins pressed further, asking: “Don’t you think it would have had an effect if you had come out in mid-December, when it was very clear the Electoral College had certified Biden’s win — if you had come out and publicly conceded the election? Why didn’t you do that?”
“Well, I wanted to be respectful. Remember, we had about 60 lawsuits that were working, some of which were still in the courts,” Pence replied, referring to the dozens of fruitless cases brought by Trump and associates disputing the 2020 election results over baseless claims of fraud.
“A lot of them were thrown out by then,” Collins interjected.
“Well, yeah, a lot of ’em were not, too,” Pence said.
Collins acknowledged that the former vice president has received praise for not caving to Trump’s urgings to nullify the results on Jan. 6. But Collins wasn’t about to let the events pass by in the “rearview mirror,” where Pence said he and supporters want to leave them.
Here’s a longer look at the interview:
Pence has been polling in the single digits in some surveys while his former boss holds a large lead in the 2024 GOP race for the White House.