Pence Goes After Trump's 'Crackpot' Lawyers
by Casey Smith, Indiana Capital Chronicle
August 2, 2023
Speaking at an Indianapolis campaign stop Wednesday, former Vice President Mike Pence further distanced himself from his previous boss, Donald Trump, as tensions continue to flare on the nomination trail.
Pence came to town to talk about the economy but Trump’s latest legal crisis pulled focus from that.
The former president was indicted on felony charges Tuesday for working to overturn the results of the 2020 election, just before the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence, a 2024 presidential hopeful, issued a condemning statement in response to the federal conspiracy charges late Tuesday, saying Trump “should not be president of the United States.”
He built on those comments after speaking before a small crowd at the Indiana State Fair Wednesday.
“I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this. I had hoped this issue and the judgment of the president’s actions that day would be left to the American people. Now it’s been brought in a criminal indictment,” Pence told reporters. “Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear.”
Pence weighs in on Trump indictment