Washington: Former US Vice President Mike Pence, humiliated by former President Donald Trump as a “wimp” for not invoking the 25th amendment to keep him in office and oust Joe Biden, is seeking to exact revenge next week in the widely publicised TV debate of republican hopefuls by denying the 2020 election was stolen and that he had no part in the conspiracy and that he upheld the constitution and knew his limits of power.
Pence is preparing for a mighty showdown with his former boss Trump in the first Republican debate where eight candidates have qualified for crossing the threshold limits, even if Trump doesn’t show up.
Pence said he would sign the loyalty pledge which under the RNC convention requires every candidate to support the eventual nominee picked by the GOP for presidency, multiple media reports said.
In a Fox News interview at the Iowa state fair, Mike Pence appeared ready to face off with his former boss at next week’s first Republican presidential nomination debate — whether his former running mate is on the stage or not.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to be on that stage,” Pence had told Fox News Digital in an interview in New Hampshire.
For four years in the White House and on the campaign trail, Pence was the then-president’s loyal co-pilot. But that all ended on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the US capitol.
The attack temporarily disrupted congressional certification of President Biden’s 2020 Electoral College victory over Trump, the subject of the four indictments handed down to Trump by juries at the federal and state level (Atlanta in Georgia) .
Pence, who was at the Capitol at the time it was attacked, overseeing the joint session of Congress was forced, along with members of Congress to temporarily flee to safety as the rioters — some chanting that the then-vice president should be hanged — stormed the building, Politico reported.
After witnessing the unprecedented scene, Pence endured the wrath of the former president and plenty of Trump’s most devout loyalists and supporters. Now, in the wake of Trump’s back-to-back indictments in connection with the attack on the Capitol and his alleged efforts to try and overturn the 2020 election, Pence is raising the pitch about his role in not listening to Trump’s legal counsels on the 25th amendment and doing the right thing in calling the national guard to quell the mob.
Though initially Pence was proud of Trump’s record in administration, he said, the president and I took a different path in the end, and sadly, in the last two and a half years, the former president has continued to maintain that I had the right to overturn the election. I had no right to overturn the election.
“If the American people hear us out, they know that we kept our oath to the Constitution. I’m confident more and more Americans every day are understanding the stand that we took and appreciating our commitment to keep the oath that we made to them and to almighty God.”
Pence had said “my differences with him go far beyond that fateful day (January 6, 2021)”.
(IANS)
