Trump criticizes Pence after Jan. 6 hearing: ‘Human conveyor belt’

Former President Trump criticized former Vice President Mike Pence, calling him a “human conveyor belt” for not supporting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results following the House Jan. 6 select committee’s Thursday hearing.

“Mike Pence had a chance to be great. He had a chance to be frankly historic. But just like [former Attorney General] Bill Barr and the rest of these weak people, Mike, and I say it sadly ‘cause I like him, but Mike did not have the courage to act,” Trump said while giving remarks at a Faith and Freedom event in Nashville, Tenn.

“The election was perfect. And the Democrats are sitting back, saying ‘No way we’re going to impeach this guy.’ Nah, it’s terrible,” he continued. “But Mike was afraid of whatever he was afraid of. But, as you heard a year and a half ago, Mike Pence had absolutely no choice but to be a human conveyor belt – he was a human conveyor belt – even if the votes were fraudulent. They said he had to send the votes – couldn’t do anything.”

Trump has repeatedly made unsupported claims that the 2020 presidential election was tainted by widespread voter fraud. He’s also called the election “rigged.” However, federal and state elections officials have not found substantial evidence of widespread election fraud.

In addition, dozens legal challenges brought by the former president’s legal team to overturn the 2020 election results were largely unsuccessful.

The former president’s remarks came after the House panel held their third public June hearing, which focused on the relation between Pence and Trump. The hearing examined alleged efforts to pressure the former vice president to overturn the 2020 election results.

Before Jan. 6 2021, Trump claimed that Pence could overturn the election results while he presided over the Senate during the certification process in Congress. Pence at the time publicly declined to do so.

Pence previously said during an event in February that he did not have the authority to overturn the last presidential election’s results.

“President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence said at the time. “The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone. Frankly, there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”