The January 6 committee testimony demonstrates that despite coming under relentless attack, Pence is a man of character and principle.
The committee testimony demonstrates that despite coming under relentless attack, Pence is a man of character and principle.
J ust as former president Donald Trump is the prime target of the ongoing January 6 hearings, former vice president Mike Pence — and by extension, his suspected presidential aspirations — could be an unintended beneficiary. The January 6 hearings have not only reminded many voters that Pence is a mature, principled figure who acted with courage that day, but they have also served to distance him from the former president. The hearings drive home that, despite intense pressure from Trump and the anticipated anger he would face from many millions of the president’s followers, Pence certified the Electoral College votes as was his duty under the Constitution.
In her testimony to the committee, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, claimed Meadows and former White House counsel Pat Cipollone discussed that Trump did not care about the possibility that the January 6 rioters could hurt Pence. According to Hutchinson, when Cipollone urged action be taken after pointing out that the rioters were calling for Pence to “be f***ing hung,” Meadows, referring to the conversation they just had with Trump, said, “You heard him. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.” This was despite the fact that rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” and built a gallows with a noose in front of the Capitol.
Cipollone will testify in front of the January 6 committee on Friday; however, it is not expected to be in public. Hutchinson’s testimony has been called into question as sources challenge the veracity of her anecdote about Trump’s insistence that his driver take him to the Capitol that day. Testimony to the contrary by those who witnessed the incident (a group that does not include Cipollone) could undermine her appearance. Still, if Cipollone confirms Hutchinson’s specific testimony about the conversation he and Meadows had regarding Trump’s view toward Pence, it would be another blow to the former president. Trump has disputed Hutchinson’s testimony, referring to Hutchinson as “Lyin’ Cassidy Hutchinson.” For now, all we know for sure is Trump’s infamous tweet at 2:24 p.m. on January 6 in which the former president slammed his vice president:
Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify.
The testimony from the committee is damning, as Andy McCarthy has documented, and it is most likely not the first time Pence had heard about this conversation. It is likely that Pence was notified of this exchange, if it happened, some time after it took place. Yet Pence, being a man of character, still has not bashed his former boss for his behavior that day. When visiting New Hampshire, Pence was asked about the idea that Trump supported the hanging of his own vice president on January 6. “I don’t know anything about that,” Pence told News 9 in Bedford, N.H. “I do know that we did our job that day under the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”
Pence has long been laying the groundwork for a presidential run in 2024. He has visited New Hampshire and Iowa multiple times in 2021 and 2022, the two states that hold the first primary and caucus, respectively. He is also raising money and campaigning for Republican candidates such as Governor Brian Kemp in Georgia. While Pence has always been a steadfast conservative, he has earned the enmity of some in the Trump base who blame Pence for certifying the 2020 election results and erroneously believe that he could have overturned Biden’s win. This is despite the fact that Pence was loyal to Trump during his entire presidency. The real betrayal was not in Pence refusing to go along with Trump’s outrageous attempt to override his loss to Biden, it was in Trump’s public condemnation of his vice president as a result of Pence’s principled stand.
The January 6 committee has not publicly ruled out having Pence testify. He, along with former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who is also a potential presidential candidate for 2024, could both do damage to Trump on the campaign trail, given what they both saw during the four years working under him. If anyone knows where the bodies are buried, Pence and Pompeo probably do.