Pence SHREDS Trump’s ‘Crackpot Lawyers’ in Fiery Statement on the Campaign Trail: ‘I Had No Right to Overturn the Election’
Former Vice President Mike Pence is not known for strong rhetoric, but while the GOP presidential candidate was campaigning at the Indianapolis State Fair, he had some uncharacteristically harsh words for former President Donald Trump and made it very clear that he followed through on his Constitutional duty.
MSNBC’s Chris Jansing played Pence’s statement to the press on Chris Jansing Reports. Much of it echoes what he has said before and the statement he released last night after the third indictment was announced, but he went further on Wednesday:
January 6 was a tragic day. And I’ve spoken and written about it extensively. I have nothing to hide. By God’s grace, I believe we did our duty that day, fulfilled the oath that I’d taken to the Constitution and to the American people. And the Constitution is quite clear about the role of the vice president in the counting of electoral votes. It essentially says the vice president presides over a joint session of Congress where the electoral votes that are certified by the states shall be opened and shall be counted. And irrespective of the indictment, I want the American people to know that I had no right to overturn the election. And that on that day, President Trump asked me to put him over the Constitution. But I chose the Constitution and I always will.
I really do believe that anyone who puts themself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States. And anyone who asks someone else to put themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again.
On his role on January 6, as described in special prosecutor Jack Smith’s indictment:
[F]or my part, I want people to know that I had no right to overturn the election, and that what the president maintained that day and frankly, has said over and over again over the last two and a half years, is completely false. And it’s contrary to what our Constitution and the laws of this country provide.
On the alleged co-conspirators:
You know, I’m a student of American history, and the first time I heard in early December, somebody suggests that as vice president, I might be able to decide which votes to reject and which to accept. I knew that it was false. Our founders had just won a war against a king, and the last thing they would have done was vest unilateral authority in any one person to decide who would be the next president. I dismissed it out of hand, but sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what itching ears wanted to hear.
Watch the full video via MSNBC.
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