In an interview with CBS’s Margaret Brennan recorded Saturday and set to air on Sunday morning, former Vice President Mike Pence denied reporting that disgraced former President Trump had roped him into pressuring then-Arizona Gov Doug Ducey and Georgia Gov Brian Kemp into tossing out enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s extremely close victories in both states in 2020.
“No, I don’t remember any pressure. Look, the president and I- things came to a head at the end, Margaret, I’ve spoken about very openly and the president and I continue to have a strong difference. I’ll always believe that by God’s grace, I did my duty under the Constitution that day in presiding over a joint session of Congress in the aftermath of the mayhem and the rioting. But in the days of November and December, this was- this was an orderly process. You’ll remember there were more than 60 lawsuits underway, states were engaging in appropriate reviews and that- these contacts were no more than that,” Pence said, apparently trying to explain it like “This was a few weeks before Trump tried to get me lynched for not wanting to violate the Constitution and unilaterally overturn the Electoral College vote count. We were still good back then.”
The Saturday Washington Post report on Ducey telling a Republican donor about Trump calling to harass him said Pence had refrained from similarly pressuring Ducey on the election result, but still Brennan asked Pence if he had pulled a “Find 11,780 votes,” which he also denied. “Well, I think the record reflects that I did check in, with not only Governor Ducey, but other governors in states that were going through the legal process of reviewing their election results, but there was no pressure involved, Margaret. I was- I was calling to get an update. I passed along that information to the president and as I said, I think the- I think the record from that time, confirms all of that.”