Former Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday denounced theories that the FBI instigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and recalled that he was "infuriated" by what he saw unfolding that day — but he also doesn't believe an "insurrection" took place or that former President Donald Trump's name should be removed from state ballots.
"We've been assured again and again that it was not the case," Pence, who last year dropped his bid for the GOP presidential nomination, told CNN's "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper.
"I've seen the director of the FBI repeatedly, and I assure the American people that the FBI were not the instigators of the riot that occurred on Jan. 6."
He added that he's "very grateful for the efforts of the FBI to bring nearly 1,000 people to justice who ransacked our capitol and did violence against police officers that day ... I believe everyone that conducted that riot at the Capitol needs to be held to the fullest extent of the law. I'm pleased many have."
Pence, who was rushed out of the Capitol as protesters swarmed the halls of Congress on Jan. 6, told Tapper on Sunday that "having been there that day, to see people literally breaking windows, ransacking the Capitol, it just infuriated me. I remember thinking, 'Not this, not here, not at the United States Capitol.'"
The attack, Pence added, should "never have happened."
He also noted that he has said many times before that he believes Trump's "words that day were reckless. I believe history will judge his role in that."
According to a recent Washington Post poll, one-third of Republicans believe the FBI instigated the Jan. 6 violence. Trump echoed that theory this past week. And Sunday, during a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, he called those who have been arrested "hostages" and demanded that President Joe Biden release them.
Pence on Sunday, though, said people "simply need to look to the facts that the Capitol Hill Police endured great hardship and great harm," and that he believes the Jan. 15 Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary shortly thereafter will give the Republican Party "a fresh start and give us new leadership to lead our party forward in the election and beyond."
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court said Friday it would decide on a case to determine if Trump should have been removed from the Colorado primary ballot after the state Supreme Court ruled that he could not participate based on a clause in the 14th Amendment barring insurrectionists from holding office.
Pence on Sunday said that he has "never called what happened on Jan. 6 an insurrection" and he thinks the former president's name should remain on ballots nationwide.
"It is noteworthy that even in the federal case in Washington, D.C., [Trump] hasn't been charged with insurrection," said Pence. "I was there. It was a riot the way it broke out, and I've never seen it any other way."
Further, he said efforts to remove Trump from the state ballots amount to trying to remove Americans' decisions on their candidates.
"These efforts to take the decision away from the American people are antithetical to the very democracy that President Biden and many Democrats are talking about wanting to defend," said Pence. "I'm very confident that the American people will choose wisely. I'm confident that we'll run our elections. But removing the former president or any other candidate from the choice of the American people, I don't believe, is in the interests of the country. And I have reason to be confident that the Supreme Court of the United States will see it that way."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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