Pence says Trump 14th Amendment ballot ban ‘antithetical’ to democracy

Former Vice President Mike Pence (R) said Sunday that efforts to remove former President Trump from the 2024 ballot, under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause,” is “antithetical” to democracy.

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Pence criticized the push to remove Trump from presidential ballots and declined to call Jan. 6 an insurrection.

“I have never called what happened on January 6 an insurrection,” Pence told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “I was there. It was a riot, the way it broke out, and I have never seen it any other way.”

“And while I said that the president’s words were reckless — and I believe that history and the American people will hold him ultimately to account for his role in that day — I think these efforts to take the decision away from the American people are really antithetical to the very democracy that President Biden and many Democrats talk about wanting to defend,” Pence said.

Pence has often denounced Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, in which his own life was in danger as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol while Pence was certifying the Electoral College results of the 2020 election in his capacity as vice president at the time.

The matter of whether or not Trump’s name will remain on presidential ballots is now in the hands of the Supreme Court, which announced Friday it would hear Trump’s appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision barring the former president from the primary ballot in the state. The decision could set up consequential effects on the duration of the 2024 presidential cycle.

Pence, who dropped out of his own 2024 presidential bid, expressed confidence in the American public to select the right candidate and said he was confident the Supreme Court would see it the same way.

“I’m very confident that the American people will choose wisely. I’m confident that we will run our elections. But removing the former president or any other candidate from the choice of the American people, I don’t believe is in the interest of the country,” Pence added.

“And I have reason to be confident that the Supreme Court of the United States will see it just that way,” he added.