New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) took aim at a group of hecklers in his state who were filmed targeting Mike Pence on the campaign trail for refusing to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election.
“Angry, unhinged Trump supporters? I don’t think anyone surprised to see it,” Sununu told CNN’s Erin Burnett in an interview on Monday.
“I mean, his base supporters tend to be very extreme, very angry. They’re very defensive. They’ll do anything to try to make sure that Trump just kind of is handed the nomination and doesn’t have to earn it.”
“Obviously, they’re going to use Mike Pence as a punching bag,” he continued. “Mike Pence stood up for America.”
As Pence was entering an event in New Hampshire on Friday, a group of Trump supporters accosted him, calling him a “traitor” and a “sellout,” and demanding: “Why didn’t you uphold the Constitution?”
Sununu praised Pence for “doing the right thing” when Trump pushed him to support his scheme to reverse his 2020 election defeat.
The former president was indicted on four federal felonies last week in connection to his coup attempt. According to the indictment, Trump and his co-conspirators tried to pressure Pence into using his ceremonial role at the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of electoral votes to “fraudulently alter the election results.”
Pence is no stranger to attacks from his former running mate’s supporters, having faced calls to be hanged on Jan. 6 because he wouldn’t bow to Trump’s demands.
He criticized Trump over the riot in the past and has intensified his reproval in the wake of the indictment, accusing the former president and his “gaggle of crackpot lawyers” of trying to make him “literally reject” the electoral votes favoring Joe Biden.
Sununu, a vocal critic of the former president, announced in June he would not run for president in 2024, opting instead to campaign against Trump.
“The stakes are too high for a crowded field to hand the nomination to a candidate who earns just 35% of the vote, and I will help to ensure this does not happen,” Sununu said at the time.