Mike Pence harshly criticizes former US president Donald Trump

Former US vice president Mike Pence delivered his strongest criticism of his former boss Donald Trump to date, warning that history will hold him responsible for his role in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Pence was present in the Capitol as thousands of Trump supporters attempted to prevent Congress from recognizing the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Pence presided over what had historically been a ceremonial process of approving the votes of the Electoral College to choose the president and vice president because the vice president has the constitutional role of Senate president.

Trump tweeted multiple times throughout the siege, urging Republicans to “fight” and repeating erroneous allegations about voter fraud. Also, he criticized Pence for approving the outcomes.

Pence said, “President Trump was wrong,” during the Gridiron dinner, an annual black-tie affair in Washington, DC, to a group of assembled journalists and their guests.

“His careless remarks threatened my family and everyone in the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

In the months that followed the incident, he rarely brought up January 6, but he has now become more critical of the rioters and his former boss’s actions on that day.

In recent media interviews, he has harshly criticized Trump’s behavior, and in a memoir published in November, he charged that Trump had put his family in danger.

He said, “What happened that day was a disgrace and to portray it in any other way is to insult dignity. I will never, ever minimize the harm done, the lives lost, or the bravery of law enforcement on that terrible day for as long as I live.”