Topline
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged the GOP to quit talking about January 6 or risk losing the 2024 presidential election when the Republican candidates were asked for the first time about former President Donald Trump during Wednesday’s primary debate.
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – AUGUST 23: Republican presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis … [+]
Key Facts
DeSantis said “we’ve answered this so many times . . . Mike [Pence] did his duty, I’ve got no beef with him,” when asked by Fox News moderators whether Pence did the right thing when he rejected former President Donald Trump’s pleas to reject the Electoral College results of the 2020 presidential election on January 6.
DeSantis urged the GOP to focus on other issues, warning that “Democrats would love” if Republicans continued to rehash January 6, adding “they will win if we let them get away with it.”
DeSantis initially side-stepped the question, before he was prompted by Pence, and said “this election is not about January 6 of 2021, it’s about January 20 of 2025,” when the next president will take office.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, when asked whether Pence did his duty on January 6, said he “did the right thing,” before launching into a rebuke of the Justice Department and promising to fire Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray if elected, heeding to the GOP narrative that the Justice Department has weaponized against Trump.
When asked whether they would support Trump if voters choose him to be the nominee, all eight candidates raised their hands, with the exception of former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who repeated his viewpoint that a conviction in the federal government’s January 6 case against Trump could bar him from serving office again, if prosecutors can prove he incited an insurrection—a possibility some legal experts have also floated under Fourteenth Amendment guidelines that prohibit federal officials from serving again if they’ve participated in an insurrection.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie agreed Pence did the right thing, while biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy repeated his call for all candidates to agree to pardoning Trump if he’s convicted.
Key Background
Trump has stuck to his opinion that Pence had the ability to reject the Electoral College results—as he urged him to do in a last-ditch effort to stay in power—despite the pressure campaign being a key aspect of the Justice Department’s case accusing Trump of unlawfully taking steps to subvert the election results, leading to the January 6 Capitol riots. Trump was indicted earlier this month on four federal felony charges accusing him of a scheme that “targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government.” He has pleaded not guilty in the case. Pence has maintained that he did not have any authority to reject the results under the Constitution—an opinion widely shared by legal experts—and that his role in counting the results was purely ceremonial.
Tangent
Trump sat out the debate, citing his strong polling lead, and instead appeared in a pre-taped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that ran simultaneously with the Fox News debate. Trump wrongly asserted that “Mike Pence had the absolute right to send the votes back to the legislatures” in the Carlson interview.
Further Reading
Pence Capitalizes On Trump Indictment With ‘Too Honest’ Campaign Merchandise (Forbes)
Trump Fires Back At Pence After Ex-VP Said Anyone Putting Self Over Constitution ‘Should Never Be’ President (Forbes)
Trump Indicted: Ex-President Charged With 4 Criminal Counts In Jan. 6 Probe—As Jack Smith Decries Election ‘Lies’ (Forbes)