Republican presidential candidates are arriving at the Iowa State Fair to ask voters for support in January’s Iowa caucuses. In his appearance at the fair Thursday, former Vice President Mike Pence responded to an unusual question about his actions on Jan. 6.
The question came at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox, a regular stop where candidates can speak directly to potential voters. Each candidate is given 20 minutes to speak or take questions.
Pence took several questions in his appearance, including one from a man who asked why Pence “committed treason” on Jan. 6, 2021 — when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol and paused the electoral vote count. Some supporters of former President Donald Trump consider Pence disloyal for overseeing the count.
Some in the crowd responded to the question with boos.
While Pence did not name Trump directly, he answered that he chose to fulfill his role as required by the Constitution despite pressure from the former president and his attorneys to block the count.
“Even though my former running mate and many of his outside lawyers told me that authority was there, I knew there never was,” Pence said. “I mean, look, there’s almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could pick the American president. The American presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone.”
According to theNew York Times, the man who asked the question is a retired postal worker from Colorado, and a Democrat.
Earlier in his remarks, Pence asked GOP voters to give careful consideration to who they support in the Iowa caucuses.
Trump holds a wide lead according to recent political polling, but Pence said Republicans need a new leader to present the party’s conservative values in the presidential election.
“I believe the American people not only long for us to return to conservative principles, but they also long for us to restore a threshold of civility in public life,” Pence said. “Now more than ever, we need leadership that can summon the better angels of our nature and invite the American people to come together to meet that future together.”
Pence spoke on the first day of the Iowa State Fair at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox. He will also appear with Gov. Kim Reynolds Friday as part of her series of “Fair-Side Chats” with GOP presidential candidates.
