Mike Pence Throws Shade at Trump: Nothing More ‘Un-American’ Than One Person Choosing the American President

Former Vice President Mike Pence appeared to make a not-so-veiled shot at President Donald Trump during a Thursday speech at Ronald Reagan Library.

The Reagan library is hosting a series of speeches this year by notable Republics about the future of their party, of which Pence was included. The nearly hour-long speech featured many of the familiar talking points one sees on conservative media — border policy, critical race theory, and the origins of Covid-19—but it was commented about January 6th that likely raised the most eyebrows.

“I will always be proud to have played a small part on that tragic day when we reconvened the Congress and fulfilled our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States,” Pence said in what might be the broadest comments he has made so far about that day since leaving office.

“Now, there are those in our party, who believed that, in my position as presiding officer over the joint session that, I possess the authority to reject or return electoral votes, certified by the states,” Pence said, making what can only be considered a clear reference to Trump, who had specifically asked Pence to do just that. “But the constitution provides the vice president with no such authority,” Pence correctly concluded.

He then took what can fairly be called a shot at Trump, saying, “There is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any, one person could choose the American president.”

It’s clear that, given the direction to his Vice President to reject the state certifications, Trump was putting his own political fortunes ahead of the political will of the people, regardless of the repeated and baseless “stolen election” lie that led to the Capitol insurrection on that very same day.

Trump reportedly called Pence a “p*ssy” in a fiery Oval Office meeting on January 5th and criticized him in a January 6th rally before his supporters attacked the capitol chanting “Hang Mike Pence!’ ostensibly due to his unwillingness to follow Trump’s orders.  Pence was recently heckled during a speech last week with boos and chants of “traitor.”

Pence was otherwise laudatory of the work accomplished during the Trump administration, so the tenor of the entire speech was far more pro-Republican and even pro-Trump than this 2 and a half minute clip.

Watch above via C-SPAN.