Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence delivers remarks, partly addressing his opposition to a grand jury subpoena for testimony about efforts to overturn then-President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection loss, to the Coolidge Presidential Foundation conference on the Library of Congress in Washington, U.S. Feb. 16, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Former Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday harshly criticized former President Donald Trump for his role within the Jan. 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol, widening the rift between the 2 men as they prepare to battle over the Republican nomination in next 12 months’s election.
“President Trump was mistaken,” Pence said during remarks on the annual white-tie Gridiron Dinner attended by politicians and journalists. “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everybody on the Capitol that day, and I do know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
Pence’s remarks were the sharpest condemnation yet from the once-loyal lieutenant who has often shied away from confronting his former boss. Trump has already declared his candidacy. Pence has not, but he’s been laying the groundwork to run.
In the times leading as much as Jan. 6, 2021, Trump pressured Pence to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory as he presided over the ceremonial certification of the outcomes. Pence refused, and when rioters stormed the Capitol, some chanted that they desired to “hang Mike Pence.”
The House committee that investigated the attack said in its final report that “the President of the USA had riled up a mob that hunted his own Vice President.”
Along with his remarks, Pence solidified his place in a broader debate throughout the Republican Party over how one can view the attack. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, for instance, recently provided Tucker Carlson with an archive of security camera footage from Jan. 6, which the Fox News host has used to downplay the day’s events and promote conspiracy theories.
“Make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace,” Pence said in his Gridiron Dinner remarks. “And it mocks decency to portray it another way.”
Trump, meanwhile, has continued to spread lies about his election loss. He’s even spoken in support of the rioters and said he would consider pardoning them if he was re-elected.
Speeches on the Gridiron Dinner are frequently humorous affairs, where politicians poke fun at one another, and Pence did loads of that as well.
He joked that Trump’s ego was so fragile, he wanted his vice chairman to sing “Wind Beneath My Wings” — certainly one of the lines is “did you ever know that you simply’re my hero?” — during their weekly lunches.
He took one other shot at Trump over classified documents.
“I read that a few of those classified documents they found at Mar-a-Lago were actually stuck within the president’s Bible,” Pence said. “Which proves he had absolutely no idea they were there.”
Even before the dinner was over, Pence was facing criticism for his jokes about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the primary openly gay Cabinet member in U.S. history.
Pence mentioned that, despite travel problems that were plaguing Americans, Buttigieg took “maternity leave” after he and his husband adopted newborn twins.
“Pete is the one person in human history to have a baby and everybody else gets post-partum depression,” Pence said.