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Squirming Pence won’t be pinned down on whether he’d pardon Trump during CNN town hall

June 8, 2023 | | Print Article

Former Vice President Mike Pence announced his 2024 White House campaign and followed it up with an appearance at a CNN town hall in the key early battleground state of Iowa on Wednesday night where he sniped at his ex-boss who is currently the GOP frontrunner.

The candidate sat down with anchor Dana Bash at Grand View University in Des Moines where he answered questions from the audience and, inevitably, the topics of the so-called “insurrection” on January 6, 2021, as well as Trump’s ongoing legal problems came up.

(Video: CNN)

After Pence dismissed the idea that he would pardon the political prisoners who were swept up in the chaos at the U.S. Capitol during a protest of the 2020 election that spun badly out of control, the subject turned to whether if elected, would he pardon Trump, a question that the squirming former veep would not answer.

“If Donald Trump is convicted of a crime, and you’re elected president, would you pardon him?” Bash asked.

“I don’t want to speak about hypotheticals,” Pence said. “I’m not sure I’m going to be elected president of the United States,” a response that drew laughter from the audience. “But I believe we have a fighting chance, I really believe we do.”

Bash followed up, “And if you are…”

“And I…and I would hope… again, Dana… I … you’re, you’re as persistent as ever,” Pence stammered, to more guffaws from the crowd.

“CNN is livin’ up to its reputation,” he continued, not answering the question. “But look, there are real issues the American people are facing, and rather than talking about that I want to talk about what the people here in Iowa are talkin’ about which is the failed policies of the Biden administration,” Pence said as applause broke out.

Pence’s non-answer comes amidst reports that special counsel Jack Smith is moving in for the kill and will bring federal criminal indictments against Trump, an unprecedented takedown of the leading GOP candidate who would then almost certainly be convicted by a Washington, D.C. jury pulled from a rabidly anti-Trump pool and the unthinkable possibility that the U.S. regime would cross over into Putin territory by having the top opposition leader thrown into jail.

Trump strongly denied the reports that he had been officially notified that he was a target of the Justice Department and that an indictment is imminent, adding to his legal problems after he was previously indicted in Soros-backed Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s prosecution in the “hush money” case centering on payments to porn queen Stormy Daniels.

“No one has told me I’m being indicted, and I shouldn’t be because I’ve done NOTHING wrong, but I have assumed for years that I am a Target of the WEAPONIZED DOJ & FBI, starting with the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX, the “No Collusion” Mueller Report, Impeachment HOAX #1, Impeachment HOAX #2, the PERFECT Ukraine phone call, and various other SCAMS & WITCH HUNTS. A TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE & ELECTION INTERFERENCE AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE. REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS MUST MAKE THIS THEIR # 1 ISSUE!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social on Wednesday.

(Image: Screengrab/Truth Social)

“I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be President of the United States and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be President of the United States again,” Pence said of Trump in fiery remarks during his campaign launch address, also in Des Moines.

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Chris Donaldson
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