A CNN host was seemingly shocked when Mike Pence took a surprising stance by defending Donald Trump’s supporters during an interview on Sunday.
Dana Bash was caught off guard when Mr Pence defended Mr Trump’s supporters, despite the violent storming of the Capitol during the 6 January insurrection in 2021 and calls for his hanging.
During CNN’s State of the Union interview, Mr Pence brought up the issue when Bash questioned him about potential concerns regarding future violence due to ongoing provocative remarks made by his former boss.
Mr Pence said he was “infuriated” on 6 January 2021, with “people ransacking the Capitol and engaging in violence against law enforcement officers”.
“I would say not just the majority, but virtually everyone in our movement, are the kinds of Americans who love this country, who are patriotic and law-and-order people who would never have done anything like that there or anywhere else,” he said.
While Mr Trump’s “words were reckless, based on what I know, I am not yet convinced that they were criminal”, he said, much to Bash’s surprise.
“That’s pretty remarkable that you’re not concerned about it, given the fact that they wanted to hang you on 6 January,” she said.
“There has been an effort to take those that perpetrated violence on January 6 and use a broad brush to describe everyone in our movement,” Mr Pence replied.
Bash said she was speaking about the repeated “potential to incite those who were incited on January 6”.
Earlier this year, Mr Pence said the former president’s “reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day”.
Yet, during the interview with Bash, he said while he believed Mr Trump’s actions attempting to overturn the election were “wrong”, he said he was “not yet convinced they were criminal”.
Mr Trump, who is currently the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, remains under the scrutiny of prosecutors across the country over a wide range of issues.
