‘History Will Hold Donald Trump Accountable’ for January 6, Pence Says

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By Andrea Shalal, Trevor Hunnicutt and Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday that Donald Trump is “historically responsible” for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, one of the strongest rebuke he has ever offered for now. of his former employer.

Pence was at the Capitol when thousands of Trump supporters breached the building in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to President Joe Biden.

Because the vice president has the constitutional role of Senate president, Pence presides over what is always a ceremonial task of approving the Electoral College’s votes to choose the president and vice president.

Throughout the siege, Trump sent several tweets, one calling on Republicans to “fight back” and others making false claims of voter fraud. He also criticized Pence for certifying the results.

“President Trump is wrong,” Pence told gathered reporters and their guests at the Gridiron dinner, an annual white-tie event in Washington, DC

“I had no right to overturn the election and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone in the capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

Pence, who is considering a run for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, was taken to safety by law enforcement during the attack.

He rarely spoke on January 6 in the months following the incident but has since stepped up his criticism of the rioters and his former boss’s behavior that day.

She has sharply criticized Trump’s behavior in recent media interviews, and in a memoir released in November she accused Trump of putting her family at risk.

Still, Pence’s comments Saturday were among his most pointed to date.

“That it happened that way is a shame,” he said. “And it mocks decency to portray it any other way. For as long as I live, I will never, never diminish the injuries sustained, the lives lost, or the heroism of law enforcement on that tragic day.”

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by William Mallard)

Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters.

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