Mike Pence insists there was ‘no pressure involved’ in calling governors after the 2020 election
Mike Pence insists there was ‘no pressure’ in calling for governors after 2020 election – but admits he did reach out to check state-level results have been challenged legally
- Ex-VP Mike Pence says Trump didn’t urge him to call governors after 2020 election, but said he did call to check in on legal challenges
- He insisted he was not pressuring governors to find fraudulent votes to overturn the results
- Comes after the Washington Post reported that Pence called Arizona Governor Doug Ducey to “pressurize” him to find a way to reverse the results
Mike Pence called former Arizona governor Doug Ducey after the 2020 election to talk about legal challenges to overturn the results — but insisted he wasn’t “pressuring” him.
People familiar with the appeal to Ducey told the Washington Post that the ex-vice president who is now running for Donald Trump’s former job was trying to get the then-governor to reverse the results.
The report notes that Pence called Ducey after pressure from Trump to do so.
“I reached out to not only Governor Ducey, but other governors in states going through the legal process to review their election results, but there was no pressure involved,” Pence clarified during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. . morning in response to the report.
Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Sunday he called governors after the election to see if there are any legal challenges to the 2020 results, but said there was “no pressure” on the calls
He continued, “After so much uncertainty about the election outcome in places like Arizona, states across the country in places like Georgia went through the legal process to participate in a review under state law. I received updates from that, passed it on, and it was no more and no less than that.’
Pushed when Trump pressured him to call or urged governors to take legal action, Pence said, “I don’t recall any pressure.”
“Look, the president and I – it came to a head at the end,” he continued. “I spoke very openly about that. And the president and I continue to have a strong disagreement. I will always believe that by the grace of God I have done my duty under the Constitution… in the wake of the chaos and riots.”
“This was an orderly process,” he noted of the legal challenges that followed the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“You’ll remember there were more than 60 lawsuits going on,” he added. “States were doing appropriate assessments, and these contacts were just that.”
According to the Post’s report, Pence called Ducey to urge the Republican governor to find evidence of fraudulent voting in Arizona to overturn the election results in the state.
The former president’s goal after the 2020 election was to find enough misconduct in certain states’ presidential election processes to overturn the Electoral College vote and avoid the small loss he saw for President Joe Biden.
The Washington Post reported that Pence pressured then-Governor of Arizona Doug Ducey to find fraudulent votes to overturn the election results in his state to help Trump avoid the narrow loss to Biden.
Ducey has become one of many political punching bags for Trump after 2020.
The former president has called Ducey a RINO — or Republican in name only — which has become one of his biggest insults to opponents within the GOP.
Ducey has reached term and is no longer governor of Arizona.
Meanwhile, Trump is still under federal investigation for attempts by him and his allies to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory.