Former US Vice President Mike Pence delivered his strongest rebuke to date to his former boss Donald Trump on Saturday, saying that history will hold him to account for his role in the attack on the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.
Pence was on Capitol Hill when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.
Since the vice president has the constitutional role of president of the Senate, Pence was presiding over what had always been the ceremonial task of passing the Electoral College votes to choose the president and vice president.
Throughout the siege, Trump sent out several tweets, one calling on Republicans to “fight back” and others making false claims of voter fraud. He also criticized Pence for certifying the results.
“President Trump got it wrong,” Pence told assembled reporters and their guests at the Gridiron dinner, an annual white-tie event in Washington, DC.
“He had no right to overturn the election, and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone on Capitol Hill that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
Pence, who is considering running for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election, was taken to safety by law enforcement during the attack.
He rarely referred to January 6 in the months after the incident, but has since increased his criticism of the rioters and his former boss’s behavior on that day.
He has strongly criticized Trump’s conduct in recent media interviews and, in a memoir released in November, accused Trump of endangering his family.
However, Pence’s comments on Saturday were his most forceful to date.
“What happened that day was a shame,” he said. “And it mocks decency to portray him otherwise. As long as I live, I will never, ever diminish the injuries sustained, the lives lost, or the heroism of law enforcement on that tragic day.”
A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of business hours.
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