CNN
—
Former Vice President Mike Pence said he is “still not convinced” that Donald Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, were criminal, as the former president faces a potential indictment for his actions that day.
“I really hope that doesn’t happen,” Pence told CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview that aired Sunday on “State of the Union.”
“In a town hall afterward, across New Hampshire, I heard a deep concern … about the unfair treatment of the law, and I think another indictment against the former president will only contribute to that sense of the American people,” Pence said. “I want these issues and the judgment about his behavior on January 6 to be left to the American people in the coming primaries, and I will leave it to them.”
Pence, who resisted pressure from Trump when he certified the results of the 2020 election, said Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 were reckless but added that he believes history will hold Trump accountable.
Bash asked Pence about a recent radio interview in which Trump spoke to his “passionate” supporters and how they would react to his potential incarceration, saying, “I think it’s a very dangerous thing to talk about.”
He told Bash that the rhetoric from Trump “doesn’t worry me, because I have more confidence in the American people.”
“I would say not only the majority, but almost all of our movement are the kind of Americans who love this country, who are patriots, who are law-and-order people, who would never do anything like that there or anywhere else,” he said.
Bash reminded that Pence was the one who called for his hanging during the chaos in the Capitol, the former vice president remained in his position.
“The people who rallied behind our cause in 2016 and 2020 are the most God-fearing, law-abiding, patriotic people in this country,” he said.
Pivoting from Trump and to argue that people are concerned about “unfair treatment under the law,” Pence took aim at whistleblowers who claim the IRS recommended charging President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden with more serious crimes than he has agreed to plead guilty to and alleged political interference in the investigation. Pence has promised to “clean house” among the top ranks of the Department of Justice if he is elected president.
Pressed on whether he thinks his former boss should be charged if the DOJ has evidence he committed a crime, Pence said, “Let me be very clear: President Trump was wrong that day. And he’s still wrong to say I have the right to overturn the election.”
“But … the criminal charges have to do with intent, what the president’s state of mind is. And I don’t honestly know what his intention was that day,” said the former vice president.
This story has been updated with additional reaction.
