Former President Donald Trump is trying to shift the blame for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
And the person he is blaming it on was the subject of rioters calling for his death, former Vice President Mike Pence.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump claimed, “Had he sent the votes back to the legislatures, they wouldn’t have had a problem with Jan. 6, so in many ways, you can blame him for Jan. 6.”
“Had he sent them back to Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, the states, I believe, number one, you would have had a different outcome. But I also believe you wouldn’t have had ‘Jan. 6’ as we call it,” he added.
His comments refer to Pence’s refusal to reject electoral votes.
The former president suggests to reporters aboard his plane that the violence on Jan. 6 was Pence’s fault.
— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) March 13, 2023
“Had he sent the votes back to the legislatures, they wouldn’t have had a problem with Jan. 6, so in many ways you can blame him for Jan. 6.”
https://t.co/lxvOduYWY6
Sure, Pence could have maybe averted Jan. 6 if he somehow arrogated the power to throw out electoral votes so he and Trump could stay in office.
It would just bring about the end of our system of government as we know it, or at the very least, lead to an unprecedented crisis with efforts to remove the presidential election loser from office as he claims to be the rightful winner — no big deal.
Over the weekend, Pence blamed the riot on Trump, saying, “President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.”
“His reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day. And I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable,” he added.
Trump’s comments would be hilarious due to how ludicrous they are if they were not such a pathetic attempt to avoid blame for his behavior.
We know the former president encouraged people to go to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” he tweeted in December 2020, adding, “Be there, will be wild!”
He also encouraged people to march to the Capitol — though he did say peacefully and did not tell the crowd to beat law enforcement with flag polls — to urge lawmakers to overturn the election results.
Those comments were made after the former president had spent weeks telling his supporters the 2020 election was stolen and that Congress could act to correct the alleged wrong.
Trump’s effort to blame Pence is interesting, given his suggestion members of the House committee that investigated the riot should be tried for “fraud and treason,” and claim the investigation was a “witch hunt.”
So if the investigation really was a witch hunt, why is he trying to blame his former vice president for the riot?
