Pence Reveals Conversation with Trump at Carter Funeral

When Donald Trump arrived for the funeral of Jimmy Carter, he went through the line and had a very brief conversation with his former VP, Mike Pence. 

Trump has been mum on the conversation, but Pence just revealed what the two talked about.  

Pence Let Me Down 

On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump was livid that Mike Pence did not help him overturn the results of the 2020 election, which Trump maintained was rigged.  

Trump referenced a group of lawmakers who wanted to reform the Electoral College Act, stating, “Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!”   

Trump then backed up his stance later when Democrats sought to shore up the language regarding the Senate president’s role in the election, stating, “If the Vice President (Mike Pence) had ‘absolutely no right’ to change the Presidential Election results in the Senate, despite fraud and many other irregularities, how come the Democrats and RINO Republicans, like Wacky Susan Collins, are desperately trying to pass legislation that will not allow the Vice President to change the results of the election? 

“Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!” 

Pence Never Had the Authority 

I have gotten into this argument numerous times with people, but the fact of the matter is that the lawmakers who argued that Pence had that power were bastardizing the rule. No stipulation would allow the Senate president, who is the serving VP, to halt or change the election outcome.  

The reason lawmakers wanted to clarify this rule was because of what happened in 2021, not to change the actual meaning of the law to remove power from Pence.  

As I stated in reports at the time, the Senate president is more or less the master of ceremonies, if you will, serving to open the certificates in the presence of a joint session of Congress, then the votes are to be counted. That’s it. That is the VP’s role as Senate president. If anyone can find a provision in the Constitution that gives the authority to the Senate president to halt the proceedings and overturn the election, show it to me and I will eat my words.  

It is not a popular opinion, I know, but Trump was dead wrong on this, as he has been in the past when it comes to the Constitution. We can point to Trump’s present interpretation of presidential immunity as another example, where he and his team have regularly misstated how immunity can be applied to his legal issues. You cannot have presidential immunity for something that happened in your personal business, not to mention he was not even president at the time. 

Pence Breaks Silence 

I have often been called a RINO for defending Pence, but I know the Constitution, so I know that Pence actually did what he was required to do and nothing more. Again, anyone who wants to call me out on this, please locate the provision in the Constitution that proves me wrong and I will eat my words, but I know it does not exist. 

After the funeral, Pence broke his silence on the conversation, stating, “He greeted me when he came down the aisle. I stood up, extended my hand. He shook my hand. I said, ‘Congratulations, Mr. President,’ and he said, ‘Thanks, Mike.’”   

Pence later added, “The opportunity to speak to the president yesterday is something that I appreciated, I welcomed. I’ve really been blessed at how much I’ve heard from people around the country who saw [our] handshake, and in that handshake, saw some hope that we might be moving past those difficult days.” 

Before leaving office, Pence and Trump met, with Pence admitting that he and Trump were likely to never agree on that particular issue. To me, Pence is a stand-up guy who got a raw deal and surely deserved better than protesters at the Capitol chanting, “Hang Mike Pence.” The man was just doing his job as mandated by the Constitution, and he surely did not deserve the treatment he received for it.