The Republican presidential candidates that participated in the first primary debate on Wednesday night nearly all said that former Vice President Mike Pence did the right thing on January 6, 2021.
Moderator Martha MacCallum asked Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) if Pence did the right thing when he certified the results of the 2020 presidential election as a riot broke out at the U.S. Capitol.
“Absolutely, he did the right thing,” Scott said, to applause from the crowd. “We should be asking ourselves a bigger question about the weaponization of the DOJ.”
MacCallum then put the question to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who refused to answer it by saying Republicans should “look forward” instead of talking about the past. He said that he would end the weaponization of the federal government and then immediately pivoted to noting that the 2024 election is not about what happened on January 6, it’s about who gets sworn into office on January 20, 2025.
DeSantis said that he had already answered the question before and that Pence “did his duty” on that day and he has no problem with the former vice president.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley also supported Pence’s actions.
“I do think he did the right thing,” she said. “We need to give him credit for that.”
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who worked in the Trump administration, praised Pence, saying, “Mike Pence stood for the Constitution, and he deserves not grudging credit; he deserves our thanks as Americans for putting his oath of office and the Constitution of the United States before personal, political and unfair pressure.”
“The argument we need to have in this party before we can move on to the issues that Ron talked about, is we have to dispense with the person who said we need to suspend the Constitution to put forward his political career,” he added. “Mike Pence said no, and he deserves credit.”
Pharmaceutical executive Vivek Ramaswamy, who praised Pence in his book for his actions on January 6, did not answer the question.
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