Former Vice President Mike Pence decided not to mention his old boss when he went to pick up a ‘courage’ award for defying him.
Pence received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at the JFK Library in Boston Sunday for his refusal to endorse false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump—which made him the No. 1 target for Trump’s supporters during the Jan. 6 riots.
The JFK Library Foundation lauded Pence for “putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021.” Despite this, Pence failed to mention Trump in his 10-minute acceptance speech.
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Instead, Trump’s former deputy made references to the importance of the Constitution—hours after the president refused to say, in a jaw-dropping NBC interview, whether he himself should have to abide by it.
“To forge a future together, we have to find common ground,” Pence said, after receiving the award—which is named after a book written by Kennedy while still a U.S. senator.
“I hope in some small way my presence here tonight is a reminder that whatever differences we may have as Americans, the Constitution is the common ground on which we stand. It’s what binds us across time and generations. It’s what makes us one people.”
He also touched on “these divided times, in these anxious days,” and obliquely criticized Trump for his tariffs and his stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“America is the leader of the free world and must stand with Ukraine until the Russian invasion is repelled and a just and lasting peace is secured,” he said, touching on Trump’s clear preference for Russia’s Vladimir Putin over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The comments come after Pence called on Trump to stop believing Putin’s lies in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week. “Only renewed American military support for our close partner provides any hope for a just and lasting peace,” he wrote, urging him to support Ukraine.
Pence also called Trump’s tariffs a “massive policy misstep.”
Trump’s attitude on Meet the Press Sunday, meanwhile, showed a different level of regard for the Constitution.
Host Kristen Welker asked him, “Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?”
His answer came through gritted teeth.
“I don’t know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said,” he said.
The Supreme Court has ordered him to facilitate the return of wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia and provide due process to migrants generally. Due process, for citizens and non-citizens, is protected under the Fifth Amendment.
Asked whether he agreed with this element of the Constitution, he answered: “I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer.”
Pence became the target of MAGA anger after standing firm against Trump’s claims that Joe Biden had stolen the 2020 election.
Those claims ultimately led to the fatal insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to prevent Congress confirming the election result.
Pence defied the advice of Secret Service agents to flee, and instead hunkered down in the building as it was stormed. He later presided over the certification of the election result after the Capitol was cleared.
As Pence hid with his family and aides in the building and protesters funneled through the corridors chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” Trump fueled the fire by railing against his lack of “courage” in a Twitter post.
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify,” he wrote on the site, now called X.
Pence had a different telling of events. Speaking to the audience at the JFK Library on Sunday, he said: “By God’s grace, I did my duty that day to support the peaceful transfer of power under the Constitution of the United States of America.
“Jan. 6 was a tragic day but it became a triumph of freedom. History will record that our institutions held. Leaders in both chambers, in both political parties reconvened the very same day and finished democracy’s work under the Constitution.”
The award was presented by JFK’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, along with his grandson Jack Schlossberg.
Previous recipients include former presidents Barack Obama, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush; Ukraine’s Zelensky; former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; and Trump nemesis and former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney.
