BOSTON – Former Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday called the constitution repeatedly, saying it was “to unite us” after receiving John F. Kennedy’s profile at the Courage Award.
Pence was awarded for his refusal along with his efforts to stay in the office of President Donald Trump after losing the 2020 election. The award acknowledges Pence, “for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of the president’s power on January 6, 2021,” the JFK Library Foundation said.
“To build a future together we have to find a common foundation,” Pence said. “My presence tonight is a reminder that whatever our differences as Americans are, the Constitution is the common ground we stand in. That’s what binds us through time and generations. …That’s what leaves us alone.”
His comments came hours after the interview with Trump aired. There, they were asked whether both American citizens and non-citizens deserved the legitimate procedures laid out in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Trump was not a commitment.
“I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” Trump said as he was pushed against me in an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker. It was recorded on his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida on Friday and aired on Sunday.
Pence never mentioned Trump in his 10-minute speech, but he made some mentions to the Trump administration.
Referring to what he called “these split times, these unsettling times,” he admitted that there was probably a difference from the Democrats in the room, but also his own Republican.
Trump pressured Pence to reject the election results from swing states that the Republican president falsely claimed to have been damaged by fraud. Pence refused, saying he lacked such authority. When a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some chanted “I want to hang Mike Pence.” Pence was frothed by an agent in the Secret Service, narrowly avoiding conflict with the rioters.
“Mike Pence had no courage to do what he had to do to protect our country and the Constitution. He gave the state the opportunity to authenticate a series of revised facts, not fraudulent or inaccurate, previously asked to prove.”
Pence refused Secret Service advice to him leaving the Capitol and stayed to continue his Democratic presidential ritual election proof of victory after the Lionitelle was cleared.
In explaining his role, Pence told the audience that “by God’s grace, he fulfilled his duty of the day to support a peaceful transfer of power under the Constitution of the United States.”
“January 6 was a tragic day, but it was a victory for freedom. History records what our institutions held,” he said in his speech. “The leaders of both rooms met again on the same day in both parties and finished their democratic work under the Constitution.”
JFK’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, presented the award along with her grandson Jack Schlossberg, saying that the day reminded her that democracy should not be taken for granted.
“At the time I thought Vice President Pence was just doing his job,” she said. “I realized later that his act of courage saved our government and warned us about what is happening now and what is happening now.”
Named after a book published by Kennedy before becoming president in 1957, the Award of Courage honors civil servants who take a principled position despite potential political or personal consequences. Previous recipients of the award include former Presidents Barack Obama, George HW Bush and Gerald Ford.
Pence has emerged as one of the few Republicans trying to take over the Trump administration.
His political action group led the country’s health agency in opposition to American freedom and the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He gave a speech urging the president to stand with his longtime foreign allies, and posted an article he wrote about the limitations of presidential power over a decade ago.
