‘It endangered me and my family,’ Tucker Carlson confronts Mike Pence on Jan. 6 riot

Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who downplayed the events of Jan. 6, 2021, as “mostly peaceful chaos” when he was on the network, grilled former Vice President of United States Mike Pence Friday about how he viewed the day when a mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, disrupted the counting of electoral votes in the 2020 election and forced lawmakers to flee.

The tough questioning by Carlson highlighted how Pence’s split with former President Trump on Jan. 6 will be a major challenge for his presidential campaign.

Many of Trump’s loyalists have not forgiven Pence, who faced chants of “hang Mike Pence” from the rioters that day, for his actions on Jan. 6, and it is a huge obstacle in his bid for the White House.

The former Fox News host began his questioning of Pence by asking him if he agreed with the term “insurrection” to describe the attack on the Capitol.

“I’ve never used the word insurrection, Tucker, over the past two years, but it was a riot that took place at the Capitol that day,” Pence said at an event hosted by Family Leader in Des Moines, Iowa.

“All I know for sure having lived through it at the Capitol is that it was a tragic day.”

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The former Vice President, who was rushed to a secure location as rioters breached the Capitol to try and stop the certification of President Biden’s electoral win, said he saw with his own eyes the violence that was inflicted on dozens of police officers and the “tragic loss of life” that resulted.

Carlson pressed Pence on who he was referring to when he mentioned the loss of life, and Pence named Ashli Babbitt, a protester who was fatally shot by law enforcement in the Capitol and whose death has become a cause célèbre for Trump and other conservatives.

“I just think it was a tragic moment, without question,” Pence said. “But I have to tell you that seeing people assaulting law enforcement officers, smashing windows, breaking into the Capitol building, it infuriated me. And it’s very likely that the restraint that was shown by law enforcement officers saved lives that day.”

Pence oversaw the certification that day. Trump, who addressed a crowd before the Capitol invasion and repeated his false claims that the election was stolen from him, had urged his vice president to overturn the results of the election.

The 64-year-old said he had no authority under the Constitution to do so, a position that has been widely accepted by policymakers from both parties as well as constitutional experts.

Pence received lukewarm applause from the audience as he told Carlson that “day of tragedy became a triumph of freedom” and that he did his duty under the Constitution.

He received an even colder response from the crowd as he told Carlson that Trump’s words that day were “reckless.”

“I believe whatever his intentions in that moment, it endangered me and my family and everyone that was at the Capitol that day,” Pence said. “I believe history will hold him accountable for that.”

Those who marched on the Capitol that day were heard chanting “hang Mike Pence” because they saw him as a traitor to Trump.

The former US Vice President launched his campaign for the 2024 Republican nomination last month by arguing that Trump’s conduct around Jan. 6 should be disqualifying for another White House term.

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Trump spent weeks claiming the 2020 election was stolen before Jan. 6 attack, and he has been criticized by members of both parties for inciting the crowd that day. Some of Carlson’s former colleagues at Fox were among those who on Jan. 6 tried to get Trump to calm down the mob that had overrun police and entered the Capitol.

Trump attacked Pence on Twitter Jan. 6 for lacking courage as the then-vice president was being escorted to safety.

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