Mike Pence.Photo: Scott Eisen/Getty
Former Vice PresidentMike Pencewas heckled and called a “traitor!” during a speech over the weekend at a conservative political conference in Florida.
TheOrlando Sentinelreportedthat security removed at least one of the hecklers, while the Associated Pressreportedthe former vice president, 62, “ignored the shouts and plowed through his address.”
“It’s great to be back with so many patriots, dedicated to faith and freedom and the road to the majority!” Pence said, during his Friday night speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Policy Conference in Orlando.
Videofrom the speech showed Pence speaking over a loud chorus of boos and shouts.
The incident highlights the rift inside the right-wing faction of the Republican Party, many of whom remain fiercely loyal to former President Donald Trump and bought into his baseless claims about his 2020 election loss.
“I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so. Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election,” Trump told the crowd, during an angry and disgruntled speech moments before he told them to “march” and “fight like hell” to overturn his loss.
The violent crowd of pro-Trump supporters then attacked the U.S. Capitol building, killing five people. Some in the crowd could be heard yelling “Hang Mike Pence!” while a gallows was erected outside the building.
Security rushed Pence and his family off the Senate floor to safety once the pro-Trump crowd breached the Capitol. TheWashington Postlaterreportedthat the mob was “about one minute” away from reaching Pence and his family, before security ushered them away.
Trump did not check in on Pence while the vice president and his family were taking cover during the riots, according to multiple reports at the time, includingCNNandThe Washington Post.
Trump also tweeted during the riot that Pence “didn’t have the courage” to do his bidding, while Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, had said the former presidentbanned himfrom entering the White House that afternoon.
Pence and Trump then went days without speaking.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye on that day,” Pencesaidearlier this month, during a speech at another Republican event in New Hampshire.
Pence has been slowly returning to the public eye with a handful of speeches and conservative engagements, while he’s still considered a likely candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Meanwhile, Trump has continued to tease his own challenge for the nomination.
Pence and his wife, former Second Lady Karen Pence, recently moved back to their home state of Indiana, while he is also writing a book.
Simon & Schuster, Pence’s publisher, says his 2023 memoir will be about “the many pivotal moments” of the Trump administration.
source: people.com
