Donald Trump (left), Mike Pence.Photo: Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty; Alex Wong/Getty
Donald TrumpandMike Penceoffered altogether different takes on the future of the Republican Party in speeches each gave separately while in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
“The dangerously deranged roam our streets with impunity. We are living in such a different country for one primary reason: There is no longer respect for the law and there certainly is no order. Our country is now a cesspool of crime,” Trump said in the speech,CNNreports.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Trump endorsed a “very strong death penalty for the people who sell drugs” and claimed “our country is now a cesspool of crime,” with “blood, death, and suffering on a scale once unthinkable.”
“Frankly, 2022 may be the best chance we will ever have to build a lasting majority to invigorate the conservative movement to fulfill conservatism’s purpose and to save our nation from the left-wing tyranny socialism and decline,” 63-year-old Pence said, perNPR.
Pence did offer a subtle reference of Trump elsewhere in his speech, saying, “Conservatism is bigger than any one moment, any one election or any one person … We always right the ship when our leaders veer off course.”
Ina statementpublished hours before thedeadly riotat the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Pence explained he had no authority to try and overturn the votes — a move that angered Trump, who took to Twitter to say Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”
As Pence’s statement was released, the vice president and congressional lawmakers began to gather to count Electoral College votes.
Trump’s supporters eventually overpowered Capitol police and forced their way into the building in a scene that eventually led to the deaths of four people as well as the evacuation of Congress and the vice president himself, who was whisked to an undisclosed location.
Footage showed that some of Trump’s supporters were chanting “hang Mike Pence” as they roamed the Capitol (a chant that Trump himselfallegedly endorsedwhile watching the footage on television).
Once lawmakers were able to reenter the building after the mob was cleared, Pence ultimately did affirm the results for Biden. Hehas since calledJan. 6 “a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.”
In aJanuary interview with Fox News, Pence said he hadn’t spoken to Trump since “last summer,” but that the two “parted amicably.”
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Trump, meanwhile, has continued to claim that he won the 2020 election. CNN reports that in his speech on Tuesday, the former president claimed the election was “very corrupt.”
“I ran for president. I won. Then I won a second time — did much better the second time,” Trump said. “What a disgrace it was. But we may just have to do it again. We have to straighten out our country.”
source: people.com
