Former United States Vice President and Republican presidential candidate Mike Pence said Sunday that he believes former President Donald Trump’s words and actions before the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, were reckless, though probably not criminal.
“While their words were reckless, based on what I know, I’m still not convinced they were criminals,” Pence told ‘s “State of the Union.”
Trump said Tuesday that he received a letter informing him that he is the subject of a grand jury investigation into his efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
The letter represented the clearest sign to date that Trump, frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, could face federal criminal charges related to his efforts to stay in power after losing the election to Democrat Joe Biden.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Pence said of a possible impeachment of Trump, proposing that it should be left to the Americans to determine whether he was responsible.
“His actions were reckless,” Pence said. “Honestly, I don’t know what his intention was” on January 6, 2021.
Before Trump supporters’ storming of the Capitol in 2021, the then-president repeatedly lashed out at Pence for refusing to try to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Pence said Sunday that Trump was wrong to think that he could overturn the result. Some of the assailants chanted “hang Mike Pence” during riots at the Capitol.
“I know I did my duty that day,” Pence said Sunday.
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