After facing a less-than-welcoming reception complete with protests and hecklers, former Vice President Mike Pence told a packed house at Stanford University Thursday evening that he doesn’t know if he and former President Donald Trump “will ever see eye to eye” on Jan. 6, calling it a “tragic day.”
“I know in my heart that we did our duty that day,” he said in response to a student who asked, “How do you feel about President Trump’s comments that you didn’t go far enough in order to protect the results of the election?”
“I kept my oath even though it hurt,” Pence added.
The former vice president spoke to students at the elite school as a part of Young America’s Foundation’s campus lecture series and was hosted by Stanford College Republicans.
Another student asked, “What are your thoughts on the RNC calling the January 6 insurrection legitimate political discourse?” Faced with his second question of the night on the Capitol breach, Pence reiterated that “January 6 was a tragic day.”
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“I just don’t know too many people around the country, including the folks at the RNC and the chairman of the Republican National Committee, who have any different view than it was a tragic day and the people who ransacked the Capitol were wrong,” he said in defense of the committee.
He also attributed the quelling of the violence to the Capitol Police and federal law enforcement’s courage.
Ahead of the event, students began protesting, as reported by YAF on Twitter.
NEW: Protests have broken out at Stanford against YAF’s @Mike_Pence event tonight pic.twitter.com/DUBoPwgm7w
— YAF (@yaf) February 18, 2022
“Hey hey, ho ho, Mike Pence has got to go!” protesters chanted while holding signs with slogans such as “U need 2 leave” and “Your hate is not welcome.”
They later began chanting, “We don’t need to learn from Mike Pence,” according to YAF.
“We don’t need to learn from Mike Pence,” the protestors chant pic.twitter.com/Gu6sOurBRb
— YAF (@yaf) February 18, 2022
At one point, a student who claimed to have campaigned for Democrats in Georgia pleaded with protesters to allow Pence to speak, saying he believes “people have a right to be here and a right to talk.” The crowd of leftists erupted in disagreement.
A liberal student tries to talk with protestors about the importance of free speech on campus.
The crowd shouts him down with boos. pic.twitter.com/y7Y7oLWRRc
— YAF (@yaf) February 18, 2022
Inside the auditorium, before Pence could begin speaking, hecklers in the audience screamed, “F*** you, Mike Pence,” to which he responded, “I love Stanford.”
On the protests and hecklers, YAF spokeswoman Kara Zupkus told the Washington Examiner, “We are glad that some who disagreed decided to listen to Vice President Pence’s speech and engage in a thoughtful discussion.”
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“Those who protested outside against free speech changed no one’s mind and fell further into their own ideological silos,” she added.
Pence covered multiple wide-ranging topics during his speech on the campus, addressing the national debt, inflation, vaccine mandates, and more.
“We don’t need to defund the police,” he told the crowd, to which an audience member yelled, “Yes, we do!”
He also took the opportunity to address what he called the Biden administration’s “embrace of the woke left’s all-encompassing assault on culture and values.”
“Under the Biden administration, cancel culture is the order of the day,” Pence said.
“Critical race theory teaches children as young as kindergarten to be ashamed of their skin color,” he told listeners as a heckler yelled, “That’s a lie!”
Before his visit, the school’s student government did everything in its power to prevent the event from happening to no avail. They voted to deny the College Republicans funding to host Pence.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
After some constitutional concerns arose regarding the original vote, the student government held a second vote. Funding was then denied a second time.
Senate co-chairman Alain Perez said, “There was some unconstitutionality behind voting in a private Slack channel.”
The College Republicans reportedly planned to file a complaint with the constitutional council of the student government after the second denial.
