Asked about allegations by former President Donald Trump that he did not do enough to try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections, former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday defended his actions on Jan. 6.
“I know in my heart we did our duty that day,” Pence said during a question-and-answer session following a speech at Stanford University.
“The Constitution was quite clear,” the former vice president said. “I kept my oath even though it hurt.”
“I don’t know if the president and I will ever see eye to eye on that,” he said. “I really don’t.”
The remarks came shortly after Pence drew ire from high-profile Trump supporters like Steve Bannon for remarks he made recently in Florida saying Trump was “wrong” to baselessly assert he had the right to change the election results.
“I spoke about that just a couple of weeks ago,” he acknowledged.
On Thursday, Pence decried the events of Jan. 6, when violent insurrectionists invaded the U.S. Capitol, calling it a “tragic” day, thanking the Capitol police officers and others who helped keep him safe, and saying he believes the perpetrators of violence should be held accountable. “We completed the people’s work.”
Pence’s candid comments came after a prepared speech entitled “How to Save America from the Woke Left,” where he hailed conservative, traditional values and blasted the “left-wing policies” of the Biden administration.
Pence praised former President Ronald Reagan as a “conservative outsider” and said Trump, as a “one of a kind” politician, also “disrupted the status quo.” In what sounded like a campaign stump speech, he touted the Trump administration’s efforts to appoint conservative judges and Supreme Court justices, combat illegal immigration and create jobs. He also said he was proud of the administration’s work to distributed coronavirus vaccines, but said he opposed vaccine mandates.
Pence’s visit came as his former boss faces increasing scrutiny. On Thursday, hours before the former vice president spoke, a judge said the New York attorney general can question Trump and two of his children under oath about his business practices.
Hosted by the Stanford College Republicans, Pence spoke at Stanford as part of a 2021-2022 campus tour put together by the Young America’s Foundation (YAF), a conservative youth organization led by former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. He previously spoke at the University of Iowa and Texas A&M University.
Ahead of Pence’s speech, dozens of Stanford students marched to the auditorium in protest, carrying handmade signs accusing Pence of being a racist and chanting, “We are the woke left,” and “Mike Pence has got to go, ho ho.” They wrote phrases like “Stand up 4 love, Pence = hate” in chalk on the walkways outside the auditorium.
Pence, said Ritwik Tati, a student protest organizer, “stands for hateful policies.”
The former governor of Indiana is a social conservative and an evangelical Christian who has drawn criticism for his opposition to abortion and lack of support for the LGBTQ community, as well as his support of controversial Trump administration policies like the border wall.
Throughout his talk, a few student protesters who had gotten tickets to the speech shouted expletives at the former vice president, which he largely ignored.
“We need to reject cancel culture and woke-ism,” Pence said at one point, referencing the recent San Francisco school board election, where voters overwhelmingly recalled three progressive board members. “Those results are sending shock waves all across the country.”
“You need to be the freedom generation,” he urged young Republicans in attendance, encouraging them to join the military or run for elected office. “You need to prepare your minds for action.”