“Real Time” host Bill Maher asked former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday about President Donald Trump’s ambitions for a third term — and the death threats Pence received from rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
Maher was referring to the findings of a House committee investigating the riots, which received testimony from witnesses who said Trump expressed approval of supporters chanting “hang Mike Pence.” A makeshift gallows was even brought to the Capitol.
After Pence agreed that a third term would be unconstitutional, Maher moved on.
“Could we say that, yes, some people were there just for reasons of, who knows, they weren’t exactly tourists, but they weren’t having horrible intent?” Maher asked. “Other people, can we say some bad people were there, like the ones who wanted to hang you? Can we say those were bad people?”
The mob was 40 feet away from Pence at one point during the riots, prompting Secret Service agents to call their loved ones “to say goodbye,” a former White House national security official testified.
However, Pence kept his response to Maher free of vitriol.
“I had no problem with the president pardoning people who got caught up in that day,” said Pence. “But for anyone who assaulted a police officer, anybody that violated and vandalized the seat of our government and sought to disrupt the counting of electoral college votes, those people never should have been pardoned and they should never get a dime.”
Maher asked once more, “So, no ill feelings about the hanging thing?” As Pence began to form an answer, Maher then asked Pence if he had “fear” for his life that day.
“Well, to be honest with you, I never felt a greater sense of resolve any day in my life than on Jan. 6,” said Pence. “You know, I’ve often told my kids the safest place in the world is to be in the center of God’s will. And I really knew I was where I was supposed to be.”
Watch an excerpt of Maher’s interview with Pence here:
Trump refused to concede the 2020 presidential election after being defeated by Joe Biden, and while he told his supporters at the time to march to the Capitol building “peacefully and patriotically,” at least 140 law enforcement officers were injured by the incoming mob. One Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department officer was nearly crushed to death.
“I mean, under the Constitution, the vice president’s role is only to preside over a session of Congress where the electoral college votes are opened and counted,” Pence told Maher. “That’s it. And no vice president in history had ever asserted any authority to decide what votes to count or send back to the states … so I knew my duty was clear and I’ll always believe, by God’s grace, I did my duty.”