• Rice is in the unique position of having voted both against certifying Biden’s win and for Trump’s impeachment in the House
  •  The South Carolina lawmaker said he still believes there were ‘real issues with the election’ 
  • ‘In retrospect I should have voted to certify,’ Rice said. ‘Because President Trump was responsible for the attack on the Capitol’

GOP Rep. Tom Rice said Wednesday that he regrets his vote against certifying two state’s electoral votes for President Biden as he now blames former President Trump for the Jan. 6 riot.

Rice is in the unique position of having voted both against certifying Biden’s win and for Trump’s impeachment in the House. Nine other Republicans voted for impeachment and 147 Republicans voted to overturn election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, but no other vote overlapped.

The South Carolina lawmaker said he still believes there were ‘real issues with the election.’

‘In retrospect I should have voted to certify,’ Rice told Politico. ‘Because President Trump was responsible for the attack on the Capitol.’

‘In the wee hours of that disgraceful night, while waiting for the Capitol of our great country to be secured, I knew I should vote to certify. But because I had made a public announcement of my intent to object, I did not want to go back on my word. So yeah, I regret my vote to object.’

Rice eviscerated the former president who he’s often sought to tie himself with closely. He said that Trump watched ‘with pride’ from the safety of the White House as his supporters breached Capitol security and ‘did nothing to stop it’ despite pleas from friends and family to appear publicly and call off the riot.

Rice noted that five died in the chaos and hundreds of others were injured, as Vice President Mike Pence and his family were whisked away to safety.

‘There was a coward in that equation,’ Rice said. ‘But it wasn’t Mike Pence.’

But Rice has often touted his conservative voting record, voting with Trump 94 percent of the time, but soured on the former president in the days since the attack.

‘He has not visited the injured and grieving. He has not offered condolences. Yesterday in a press briefing at the border, he said his comments were ‘perfectly appropriate,” he said at the time of his vote to impeach.

‘I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.’

Rice also compared Trump to a dictator in a June interview.

‘I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.’

More than 700 people have been charged in connection to the riot and 65 have been sentenced.

Still, Trump announced this week he will hold a news conference on the one-year anniversary of the riot. He still claims election fraud was to blame for his losses is in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan.