In a new statement, former President Donald Trump hurled insults at the committee investigating the January 6th, 2021, attack on the Capitol and demanded its members investigate former Vice President Mike Pence instead for his refusal to reject the 2020 election results in Trump’s efforts overturn the November 2020 election.
Referring to the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack as the “Unselect Committee” – because Trump is not above juvenile insults – the statement opened by calling the committee “pathetic” and said it was filled with “political hacks, liars, and traitors.”
Related: Donald Trump tore up multiple January 6 records that had to be taped back together
Trump went on to say that Pence “could have sent the votes back to various legislators for reassessment after so much fraud and irregularities were found,” even though multiple investigations into states’ election results – as well as multiple recounts – found no evidence of fraud.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Trump then blamed Pence for the Capitol Insurrection, saying that if he had rejected the election results, “There would have been no ‘January 6’ as we know it!”
He then said the committee should investigate why Pence decided not to refuse to accept the results of the election.
NEW!
President Donald J. Trump:
“So pathetic to watch the Unselect Committee of political hacks, liars, and traitors work so feverishly to alter the Electoral College Act so that a Vice President cannot ensure the honest results of the election, when just one year ago… pic.twitter.com/IagKnvPr5M
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) February 1, 2022
Blocking the certification was indeed the goal of the insurrectionists, and they succeeded at delaying the process for several hours.
Pence’s refusal to block the certification of the fair and legitimate election of President Biden led Trump supporters to brand him a traitor.
On January 6, many of them rampaged through the Capitol with a makeshift noose, chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” while the former vice president was presiding over the largely ceremonial process of the Senate accepting all 50 states’ electoral votes.
Hours before the ceremony, Trump had a call with Pence to try to persuade him to abandon his duty and attempt to overturn the election results.
“You can either go down in history as a patriot,” Trump told Pence, “or you can go down in history as a pussy.”
Pence has a long history of promoting discrimination against LGBTQ people.
The former vice president rocketed to national prominence when, as governor of Indiana, he signed into law the state’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” which allows businesses to refuse service to gay patrons based on their religious beliefs.
Following national protests, Pence signed an amended version of the law intended to provide protection for sexual orientation and gender identity.
Pence also voted against all LGBTQ legislation when he was in Congress, calling it part of a “radical social agenda” and saying that LGBTQ families are not “the safest harbor for children.”
And as vice president, he refused to even mention LGBTQ people during his World AIDS Day addresses and even delivered a keynote address at the anti-LGBTQ organization Focus on the Family, which was founded by James Dobson who once wrote that it was important to raise boys to be heterosexual to avoid “exposure to sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis, and even a shorter lifespan.”
In February 2021, after his term as vice president had ended, Pence then joined the anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation as a “Distinguished Visiting Fellow” to advise the group on public policy and write a monthly column for its news outlet.
The organization is among the leaders in the blizzard of anti-trans legislation happening in states and is fighting against passage of the Equality Act.
