Pence on Jan. 6: 'Crackpot lawyers' told Trump 'what his itching ears wanted to hear'
Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday following an indictment of Donald Trump reiterated that he had no right to overturn the 2020 election results, saying a group of "crackpot lawyers" had told the former president otherwise.
Speaking publicly for the first time since Trump was indicted for his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, which culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Pence told reporters at the Indiana State Fair that he had hoped it wouldn't come to an indictment in the matter.
But Pence reiterated what he has said for months — that he had no right as vice president to overturn the election as Trump and some of his allies claimed.
"For 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," Pence said. "And it’s contrary to what our Constitution and the laws of this country provide."
"You know, I’m a student of American history. And the first time I heard in early December somebody suggest that as vice president I might be able to decide which votes to reject and which to accept, I knew that it was false … I dismissed it out of hand," Pence added. "Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear.”
A grand jury on Tuesday handed down an indictment of Trump on four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Prosecutors allege Trump knowingly pushed claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent and that he had actually won and that he repeatedly pressured Pence to reject the results. The indictment details how co-conspirators and Trump pushed the idea that Pence could unilaterally reject or return electoral votes during the Jan. 6 certification, something Pence said he did not have the authority to do.
Pence, who is running against Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, argued when he launched his campaign in June that Trump's actions that day were disqualifying because he put himself above the Constitution.