Pence ‘disappointed’ by Trump on Jan. 6 but mom on ex-president’s reliability

Mike Pence was unable to respond when pressed on whether or not Donald Trump could be taken at his word, by a persistent ABC News reporter in a new interview.

The conversation between the former vice president and ABC’s Jonathan Karl on Sunday quickly centered on whether Mr. Pence generally trusts the words and public statements of his former boss when Mr. Trump currently seems poised for a dominating performance in the upcoming 2024 GOP primary.

And under repeated questioning from Karl on the issue of Mr Trump issuing a statement in the hours leading up to the January 6 attack falsely claiming that Mr Pence would help him in his efforts to annul the 2020 election , Mr. Pence would only say that he was “disappointed” in the former president, not that he did not trust him. He would not even specifically say that Mr. Trump had lied.

“I’m very proud of the Trump Pence administration’s record,” Pence replied to Karl’s first attempt to get an answer on the question.

“But is he a man of his word?” Karl fired back.

“On issue after issue, we have delivered on our word to the American people,” Pence replied, before launching into a lengthy rant about the Trump administration’s political record.

Karl then insisted: “I am not asking you for the record. I’m asking you about the man.

Mr Pence finally explained: ‘I said that at the time and I meant it. I was deeply disappointed with the President’s words and conduct in the days leading up to January 6 and January 6.

But Mr Pence did not judge whether his potential 2024 rival could be trusted overall; a question that is likely to be revisited if the two end up sharing a debate stage during the Republican primary season.

Mr. Trump is highly unlikely to select his former vice president as his running mate again, given Mr. Pence’s refusal to overstep his constitutional authority on Jan. 6. Mr Pence is also believed to be preparing his own bid for the presidential nomination, as are other ex-Trump administration figures like Nikki Haley, who has previously announced his candidacy, as well as the former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

Mr. Pence is currently only voting in the single digits in the 2024 hypothetical field surveys. These and other remarks he made in the same interview are testament to his continued efforts, over the months and now years since January 2021, to stay relevant in both establishment conservative and grassroots GOP pro-Trump circles as he charts future national ambitions. .

In the same interview, he took a stand against indicting Mr. Trump for a crime in connection with the ongoing investigation into a silent payment made to a porn star in 2016; Mr Pence has attacked Alvin Bragg’s office for pursuing the prosecution when “there is a crime wave in New York”. Notably, Mr. Bragg’s office only has jurisdiction over the borough of Manhattan, and NYPD officials say the city as a whole is actually on a downward trend in terms of listed crime.

Mr. Trump said he expects an arrest and a criminal charge stemming from the case in the coming days.