Mike Pence has lashed out at the “gaggle of crackpot lawyers” who worked with Donald Trump to allegedly try to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as the former vice-president found himself thrust into an unwelcome spotlight.
Trump was charged with four felonies this week over his attempts to meddle with the presidential election. The 45-page indictment shows that Pence was a crucial figure in Jack Smith, the special counsel, being able to bring those charges.
“Contemporaneous notes” taken by Pence, and referred to in the indictment, document how Trump and his advisers pressured Pence to reject the certification of the election in January, which could have resulted in the House of Representatives handing Trump a second-term in office.
On Wednesday, as Trump and his legal team attempted to downplay those efforts – one of Trump’s lawyers suggested that they only asked Pence to do “pause the voting” on January 6 – the usually meek Pence reacted angrily.
“Let’s be clear on this point. It wasn’t just that they asked for a pause,” he told Fox News.
“The president specifically asked me, and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me, to literally reject votes, which would have resulted in the issue being turned over to the House of Representatives, and literally chaos would have ensued.”
The former vice-president is unlikely to be thrilled with his newly central role in Trump’s indictment. Pence is running – so far unsuccessfully – for president himself, and is already unpopular with a Republican base which is still largely in thrall to Trump.
Along with the notes which Smith used, among other sources, to build the case against Trump, Pence also spent seven hours before a grand jury investigating Trump in April.
According to the indictment, Trump repeatedly pressured Pence to reject electoral votes in phone calls across late December and early January, including on Christmas Day.
“On December 25, when the vice-president called the defendant to wish him a Merry Christmas, the defendant quickly turned the conversation to January 6 and his request that the vice-president reject electoral votes that day,” the indictment reads.
“The vice-president pushed back, telling the defendant, as the vice-president already had in previous conversations: ‘You know I don’t think I have the authority to change the outcome’.”
Pence, who was a notably obsequious figure through the majority of Trump’s presidency, had earlier stood up to Trump, a little bit, on Twitter.
“Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States,” Pence tweeted on Tuesday.
“Our country is more important than one man. Our constitution is more important than any one man’s career. On January 6th, Former President Trump demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. I chose the Constitution and I always will.”
