Former Vice President Mike Pence feels “residual bitterness” toward former President Donald Trump over his lack of concern for Pence’s safety during the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace told “The Story” on Wednesday.
“That weekend [after the riot], some members of the Pence team called me up … to make it clear — this is how angry the Pence team was — that Donald Trump never called Mike Pence when he was in the bunker inside the Capitol, to ask him if he was safe, to inquire about his safety, nor did he ever urge the people who were storming the Capitol to stand down and not to go after Mike Pence,” Wallace recalled.
Pence, in his role as vice president, was presiding over a joint session of Congress when the Capitol was breached by a mob attempting to stop the certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory. Five people, including a Capitol Hill Police officer, died during the attack, which forced Pence and other lawmakers to flee the House and Senate chambers.
Pence’s team said Trump’s failure to call off the mob and ensure the safety of his loyal second-in-command represented the “ultimate betrayal,” Wallace explained.
They felt they did “‘everything we could for four years to serve you, to stand by you,'” Wallace said. “‘You asked us to do something that was a constitutional impossibility, and then you didn’t protect us when the mob came to — literally to try to find him [Pence]’ and to, in the minds of some of them, to execute him.”
After a days-long rift, Trump and Pence eventually met in the Oval Office to discuss the final days of their administration, but a fair amount of “residual bitterness” remains between them, Wallace said.