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Former Vice President Mike Pence said Donald Trump endangered him and his family on Jan. 6, 2021, in his most scathing comments of the day.
In an excerpt of an ABC News interview that aired Sunday, Pence described then-President Trump’s actions as “reckless” and said he was angered when Trump targeted him personally in a tweet.
Pence was jailed along with dozens of other lawmakers as rioters descended on the Capitol building in an attempt to stop the confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden that day.
At 2:24 p.m., after the uprising began, Trump expressed his frustration at Pence for refusing to block the certification, tweeting: “Mike Pence didn’t have the guts to do what needed to be done to protect the country us and our Constitution. ”
When Pence was asked about it by ABC News’ David Muir, there was a long silence before he said, “It pissed me off.”
He continued: “But I turned to my daughter who was standing nearby and said, ‘It doesn’t take courage to break the law. It takes courage to uphold the law.”
“The president’s words were reckless. It’s clear he decided to be part of the problem.”
In another quote cited by ABC News, Pence said: “The president’s words were reckless and his actions were reckless.”
He went on to say that Trump’s comments at the rally before the riots began “put me and my family and everyone in the Capitol building at risk.”
In June, the January 6 Commission heard how rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” on Capitol Hill — a phrase that then trended on Twitter in the following days, the Guardian reported.
The interview ended on Sunday, while other parts will be released on Monday. In Pence’s memoir, “So Help Me God,” to be published Tuesday, he wrote about his reaction on Jan. 6, saying rioters “desecrated the seat of our democracy” with the attack.
In another excerpt from the book, Pence wrote that his relationship with Trump had soured badly after it became clear that the former vice president would not help Trump overturn the election results.
