Former Vice President Mike Pence, who served with Donald Trump in the White House for four years, and, some say, knows him better than almost anyone, refuses to say once again, as he did before the 2016 election, that the former president is a “good man.”
Pence, a hard core Christian conservative who cites his faith every time he describes himself, in the same rhetoric he’s used for decades – “I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order” – deflected, pivoted, and then invoked “God” as he refused to “pass judgment” on Trump.
Hawking his memoir, “So Help Me God,” Pence was interviewed by NPR host Steve Inskeep.
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“I want people to know that you included some of your past speeches in an appendix in the end,” Inskeep said, “including your 2016 convention speech in Cleveland accepting the vice presidential nomination. I was in Cleveland at the time, watching the convention. It’s a good speech.”
Pence thanked him.
“In that speech,” Inskeep continued, “you say Donald Trump is a ‘good man.’ Not just that he was the man for the moment or the right man or a strong candidate, but a ‘good man.’ Do you still believe he’s a good man?”
Pence refused to give a direct answer.
Almost shrugging, Pence relied on remarks he’s made recently, which do not answer Inskeep’s simple question.
“President Trump was wrong,” Pence sidetracked, pausing, then adding, “on January 6, in arguing that I had the authority to overturn the election.”
“But I’ll always be proud of the record that we created for the American people, Steve,” Pence said, which has nothing to do with Trump’s moral character or ethics.
Inskeep, respectfully noted, “You didn’t just call him a ‘good man,’ again.”
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“Well look,” Pence said, letting out a small, exasperated huff. “I truly do believe that only God knows our hearts. And I’ll leave it to others to make their own judgments.”
Donald Trump allegedly said, according to reports, in the Oval Office when told his insurrectionists were swarming the Capitol shouting, “Hang Mike Pence” on January 6, that maybe they were right.
The Guardian, citing a New York Times article, in May reported: “Two witnesses, the paper said, have confirmed to the House committee investigating the events of 6 January 2021 that Mark Meadows, then Trump’s chief of staff, described Trump ‘saying something to the effect of, maybe Mr Pence should be hung’.”
Watch the segment below or at this link.