President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence’s relationship is back in the spotlight again after a new interview with Trump was released showing tension surrounding Pence’s decision to certify the contested electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election.
In the interview, ABC’s Jonathan Karl who is the author of the upcoming Trump-centered book, Betrayal, asked Trump what he thought about protesters allegedly calling for the “hanging” of Mike Pence over the Jan. 6 Capitol protest – a pro-Trump, election integrity rally that is often referred to as an “insurrection” by the mainstream media.
Trump commented on the dubious nature of Pence’s decision to certify contested electoral votes, despite the fact that Pence was aware of the nature of the fraud occurring in the presidential race.
“It’s common sense that you’re supposed to protect [the Constitution],” said the 45th president. “How can you — if you know a vote is fraudulent, right? — how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that? And I’m telling you: 50/50, it’s right down the middle for the top constitutional scholars when I speak to them.”
Last year’s presidential race was fraught with serious allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities, resulting in extensive audits and investigations across the nation throughout 2021. States like Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan are just three of the major battleground states that have been plagued with reports of voting problems that amount to hundreds of thousands of fraudulent ballots in each state.
In January, Pence sent shock waves throughout the conservative community when he made the decision to certify each state’s electoral votes, despite public pressure to reject them. Prior to his decision, Trump told his supporters that if Mike Pence did “the right thing, we win the election…we are supposed to protect our country and support our Constitution.” Pence’s decision to certify the votes reportedly caused a rift between the two men, but Pence has publicly refuted those claims.
In an October interview with Ruthless Podcast, Pence said that he and President Trump have spoken probably “a dozen times” since Biden’s inauguration. He also praised the 45th president’s leadership during their time in the White House. “Watching the way that President Trump was involved in the legislative process was…just amazing,” he said.
The mainstream media has taken Trump’s interview with Jonathan Karl to an extreme, running the story on countless outlets and social media platforms, from Twitter to Instagram, claiming that Trump called for the hanging of Mike Pence in his interview, which he clearly did not do. Rather, Trump gave voice to the concerns of millions of Americans who were worried about Pence’s certification of suspicious electoral votes in light of countless reports of voter fraud.
In his interview with Jonathan Karl, Trump revealed some more details about his conversation with Mike Pence going into Jan. 6:
“Now, when I spoke to him, I really talked about all of the fraudulent things that happened during the election. I didn’t talk about the main point, which is the legislatures did not approve — five states. The legislatures did not approve all of those changes that made the difference between a very easy win for me in the states, or a loss that was very close, because the losses were all very close.”
Pence’s decision to certify the votes regardless paved Joe Biden’s path to the White House. Americans have thus experienced many consequences of that decision, including: rampant inflation, economic recession, chaos at the southern border, a botched Afghanistan withdrawal, tyrannical vaccine mandates and a serious supply chain crisis going into the holiday season.
While Trump supporters anxiously await news of a potential 2024 presidential run from Trump, it is unlikely that he would choose Pence as a running mate again.