Pence says ‘no pressure involved’ in calls to governors following 2020 election

Former Vice President Mike Pence called former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey following the 2020 election, but “there was no pressure involved,” he said in an interview airing Sunday.

Pence's comments followed a report in the Washington Post that former President Donald Trump pushed Pence to make a call to Ducey to urge him to find evidence that would help Trump overturn the state’s presidential results.

“I did check in, with not only Governor Ducey, but other governors in states that were going through the legal process of reviewing their election results, but there was no pressure involved,” Pence said during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation."

“After so much uncertainty about the election outcome in places like Arizona, in places like Georgia, states around the country, were going through the legal process of engaging in a … review under state law,” Pence said. “I got updates on that, passed that along, and it was no more, no less than that.”

According to the Post’s report, Trump also called Ducey, prodding the Republican governor to find enough fraudulent votes to help overturn his narrow loss to Joe Biden in the state.

Since Ducey’s refusal to overturn the state’s election results in 2020, he has been a political punching bag for Trump, who has called him a “RINO” — Republican in Name Only — and “one of the worst Governors in America.” But Ducey, who has since left office after reaching his term limit, has stood by his decision, saying he was “loyal to the Constitution and the law.”

Trump is under federal investigation over efforts he and allies may have taken to attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. He is also facing a state investigation in Georgia on similar allegations; in a recording of a call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump can be heard asking Raffensperger to “find” more votes.