Former president Donald Trump issued a statement Friday night responding to former vice president Mike Pence, who rebuked him publicly over Jan. 6 for the first time earlier in the day.
In a speech to the Federalist Society, Pence said: “This week, president Trump said I had a right to ‘overturn the election.' President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone, and frankly there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president."
In a statement issued by his Save America PAC more than six hours later, Trump said, "Just saw Mike Pence’s statement on the fact that he had no right to do anything with respect to the Electoral Vote Count, other than being an automatic conveyor belt for the Old Crow Mitch McConnell to get Biden elected President as quickly as possible."
"Well, the Vice President’s position is not an automatic conveyor if obvious signs of voter fraud or irregularities exist," Trump added. "That’s why the Democrats and RINOs are working feverishly together to change the very law that Mike Pence and his unwitting advisors used on January 6 to say he had no choice. The reason they want it changed is because they now say they don’t want the Vice President to have the right to ensure an honest vote. In other words, I was right and everyone knows it. If there is fraud or large scale irregularities, it would have been appropriate to send those votes back to the legislatures to figure it out. The Dems and RINOs want to take that right away. A great opportunity lost, but not forever, in the meantime our Country is going to hell!"
A few reactions below.
Interestingly, Trump decides to hold his fire against Pence and go after McConnell insteadpic.twitter.com/FKQMUPWClV— Blake Hounshell (@Blake Hounshell) 1644030149
Trump pulls punches on Pence. \n\n\u201cI was right and everyone knows it,\u201d he says, hours after Pence said \u201cPresident Trump is wrong.\u201dpic.twitter.com/2ihHYay5Pk— Kyle Cheney (@Kyle Cheney) 1644030386
This statement is Carrie Mathison-chart level in terms of getting to the part where he says he was rightpic.twitter.com/1R7f1WpheN— Maggie Haberman (@Maggie Haberman) 1644030128
Fine, we hereby declare the 2024 election to be fraudulent. Kamala Harris do your thing. \nIs THAT how you really want to play it?https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1489796362308886531\u00a0\u2026— Shelly (@Shelly) 1644030463
They\u2019re starting to turn against you, pal, and now you are deeply screwed. Deeply and profoundly screwed. Sleep tight.— CommonSense (@CommonSense) 1644030492
Keep incriminating yourself. You\u2019re doing a great job at it— StandForDemocracy (@StandForDemocracy) 1644030764
