CNN's Kaitlan Collins Confronts Mike Pence for Failing to Speak Out Against Trump Before Jan. 6 Insurrection
Kaitlan Collins challenged Mike Pence about the January 6th insurrection by asking the former vice president if he regretted not putting a kibosh on Donald Trump's theory that the presidential election was stolen before his loyal supporters stormed the Capitol.
Trump's ex-righthand man danced around the question, despite being pushed repeatedly to give a "yes" or "no" answer by Collins, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Pence appeared on Tuesday's CNN show The Source with Kaitlan Collins to promote his book, but the young anchor had other talking points. When confronting the 64-year-old politician on why he failed to speak out before being hunted down at the Capitol with rioters chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” he gave a lengthy response but didn't deliver — again.
"Mr. Vice President, I understand that you’re saying it’s not something that gets brought up a lot by Republican primary voters.
"But when you talk about your actions on that day, you’re often praised for the actions you took that day, standing up to the pressure you were facing to take actions that you say you could not take, that everyone says you wouldn’t — didn’t have the ability to do.
"But do you ever wish that you had spoken up sooner, that you had come out and publicly conceded the election in the weeks before it got to the point that it got to, that you had said something before then?" Collins asked.
According to Pence, he "hoped all the way up to the waning days before January 6 that President Trump would come around on this issue.
"I’d seen it many times. You talk about times that we disagreed when I was vice president. I’d seen the president take a hard position on an issue who, and then take the opposite position, and then engage in a debate back and forth," he stated.
Pence continued by explaining the moment he thought Trump had changed his tune.
"And I will never forget that Monday night, right before January 6, when he stood before a crowd in Georgia at a rally. And I had been in Georgia earlier in the day rallying folks for that special Senate election. And I remember he said: Mike Pence has got to come through for us, and if he doesn’t, I won’t like him so much.
"And then he paused and said: No, no, one thing you know about Mike is, he’s always going to do the right thing," he recalled.
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Pence said it was in that moment that he thought "Maybe he’s coming around and starting to see that the people that had told him that I had some authority, that the Constitution simply did not give me, nor should ever give to any one individual. The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone.
"But it was not to be. And, sadly, things went downhill from there. But I had hoped all along the way to persuade him of the rightness of our cause and our position. Let the process work in the Congress. Let the objections be heard," he said, later adding, "You remember, Democrats brought objections to Electoral College votes in three of the last four elections that Republicans had prevailed. There’s nothing wrong with that process happening. But I’d always hoped that the president would come around and recognize that we did our duty that day."
"But don’t you think it would have had an effect if you had come out in mid-December, when it was very clear the Electoral — the Electoral College had certified Biden’s win — if you had come out and publicly conceded the election? Why didn’t you do that?" Collins pushed, forcing Pence to turn his attention to the terrifying events that unfolded on January 6, 2021.
"Well, I wanted to be respectful," he responded, claiming, "we had about 60 lawsuits that were working, some of which were still in the courts." Collins shot back, "A lot of them were thrown out by then," once again, forcing Pence to refocus.
"Well, yes, a lot of them were not too. It’s — the reality is, I wanted to respect the process. I wanted to make it clear that I was going to do my job as the presiding officer over the Congress, as my 47 predecessors had done, and as vice president, serving as president of the Senate," he responded.
"I think we did our duty. By God’s grace, we did our duty that day. And I must tell you, I was very moved by that woman who asked me at the town hall meeting about it, that she later told someone on your network that she appreciated that I was a man of faith and said she’d consider voting for me nonetheless.
"So I welcome the opportunity to talk about the record that we built under the Trump/Pence years. But I also welcome the opportunity to talk to people about what I understood to be my duty, and that, if I have the great privilege of being president of the United States, I will always keep my oath to the Constitution."
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