Former US vice president Mike Pence on Saturday offered his most forceful rebuke to date of his one-time boss, former US president Donald Trump, saying that history would hold him accountable for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Pence was in the Capitol when thousands of Trump supporters breached the building in an attempt to stop the US Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to US President Joe Biden.
As the vice president has the constitutional role of Senate president, Pence was presiding over what had always been the ceremonial task of approving the votes of the Electoral College to select the president and vice president.
Throughout the siege, Trump posted several messages on Twitter, one calling on Republicans to “fight” and others making false claims of voter fraud.
He also criticized Pence for certifying the results.
“President Trump was wrong,” Pence told assembled journalists and their guests at the Gridiron Dinner, an annual white-tie event in Washington.
“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 that history will hold Donald Trump accountable,” he said.
Pence, who is considering a run for the Republican nomination for next year’s presidential election, was whisked to safety by law enforcement during the attack.
He has rarely addressed the Capitol attack, but has recently upped his criticism of the rioters and the behavior of Trump that day.
He has sharply criticized Trump’s conduct in recent media interviews, and in a memoir released in November last year, he accused Trump of endangering his family.
Still, Pence’s comments on Saturday were his most pointed to date.
“What happened that day was a disgrace,” he said. “It mocks decency to portray it any other way. For as long as I live, I will never, ever diminish the injuries sustained, the lives lost, or the heroism of law enforcement on that tragic day.”
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours.
Pence’s relationship with Trump has been complex since the two left office, but the former vice president’s comments on Saturday indicate he is willing to more forcefully distance himself from Trump as the presidential campaign heats up.
His remarks came just days after conservative television host Tucker Carlson aired security footage of the Capitol attack, claiming that many of the rioters were “orderly.”
Carlson’s depiction of Jan. 6 was sharply criticized by Democrats and several high-profile Republicans in the Senate, although many other Republicans — particularly in the House of Representatives — shrugged off the episode.
‘EYE FOR AN EYE’: Two of the men were shot by a male relative of the victims, whose families turned down the opportunity to offer them amnesty, the Supreme Court said Four men were yesterday publicly executed in Afghanistan, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power. The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the center
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
The US will help bolster the Philippines’ arsenal and step up joint military exercises, Manila’s defense chief said, as tensions between Washington and China escalate. The longtime US ally is expecting a sustained US$500 million in annual defense funding from Washington through 2029 to boost its military capabilities and deter China’s “aggression” in the region, Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro said in an interview in Manila on Thursday. “It is a no-brainer for anybody, because of the aggressive behavior of China,” Teodoro said on close military ties with the US under President Donald Trump. “The efforts for deterrence, for joint resilience
RSS