Remember Mike Pence? While many know him as the former vice president under Donald Trump, there is much more to his story. He was the number one target at the Jan. 6 attacks and even briefly ran for president himself this election.
As we all know, Pence was Donald Trump’s running buddy in both the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, serving as vice resident between 2017 and 2021. He showcased true devotion to his conservative, patriotic feelings on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, but he refused to give in. That day effectively destroyed their relationship, and Pence tried making his own role for the presidency in the upcoming election. Not everything went as planned, though.
Did Pence disappear because of the feud he started having with Trump, or did the dirty politics start to get too much for Republicans’ former favorite gray-haired puppet? Well, it’s a mixture of both.
What happened to Mike Pence on the Jan. 6 attack?
As vice president, Pence was leading the congressional joint session on Jan. 6, 2021, whose job was to count the electoral votes and confirm the new President of the United States. While these events are usually celebratory and formal, as we all know, it was quite a party in 2021.
Trump pressured Pence to overturn the election results. But, while Trump had spoken about how he and Pence were on the same page and agreed to sabotage the session, Pence didn’t want to any part of this wild fantasy.
“What I want the American people to know is that President Trump was wrong then and he’s wrong now that I had no right to overturn the election. I had no right to reject or return votes, and that, by God’s grace, I did my duty under the Constitution of the United States,” Pence told CNN in August 2021.
During the attack on the Capitol, Pence wasn’t harmed, though reportedly coming close to meet the rioters while they stormed the building. A Reuters photographer Jim Bourg, who was in the Capitol at that time covering the events, claimed on X he had heard multiple rioters “say that they hoped to find Vice President Mike Pence and execute him by hanging him from a Capitol Hill tree as a traitor.”
Afterwards, Pence confirmed the Biden and Harris administration as winners of the 2020 presidential election.
What happened to Mike Pence after the Jan. 6 attacks?
Pence, contrary to Trump, swallowed the bitter pill of defeat and attended Biden and Harris’ inauguration as president and Vice President of the United States. After that, he distanced himself from Trump, though in some cases he spoke about the former president with respect.
In January 2023, after classified documents were found at the home of current President Joe Biden, Pence asked his attorney to search his home out of caution. After discovering a few, they handed them to the FBI. After the investigation and full cooperation from Pence, the Department of Justice decided no charges would be filed against the former vice president.
What happened to Mike Pence’s presidential campaign?
Some early polls in 2021 showed that if Trump didn’t run for the president again, Pence’s chances were high to become the Republican’s candidate. In May 2022, the first reports about Pence’s possible campaign appeared, with the former VP confirming his start in the race on June 5, 2023.
Pence launched his bid in Iowa instead of his home state of Indiana, despite being the latter’s governor before becoming the vice president in 2017. While he praised the former government he had co-created with Trump, they both differed in specific areas, including abortion or supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia. “I have no doubt in my mind if the West were to falter and Vladimir Putin were to overrun Ukraine, it would just be a matter of time before he crossed a border that under article five. We as NATO allies would have to go and fight him,” Pence told Euronews this April.
Despite high hopes, Pence withdrew from the race in October 2023. His numbers just weren’t high enough. Judging by September 2023 polls, Trump had 52 percent support among the Republican Party, with Pence being in the backseat with merely seven percent, according to CNN.
“I’m leaving this campaign, but let me promise you, I will never leave the fight for conservative values and I will never stop fighting to elect principled Republican leaders to every office in the land. So help me God,” Pence said at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference in Las Vegas in October, via CNN.