Former Vice President Mike Pence has “spoken frequently” with former President Donald Trump since the duo left office on Jan. 20, apparently putting aside Trump’s public denouncement of Pence during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Pence told a group of top House Republicans on Tuesday that he speaks to Trump on a regular basis and remains “very proud of the Trump-Pence record.”
Pence said the two “have maintained a close relationship,” Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks of Indiana told the Washington Examiner after the meeting.
Their relationship has apparently survived Trump’s Jan. 6 attack on Pence after the then-vice president refused to block the congressional certification of President Biden’s electoral victory.
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“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,” Trump tweeted. “USA demands the truth!”
Trump sent the tweet as throngs of violent pro-Trump protesters stormed the Capitol in a bid to stop the certification.
Some of the rioters hunted for Pence, who was rushed from the Senate chamber to a safe location by his Secret Service detail.
The House impeached Trump on Jan. 13 for inciting an insurrection. The Senate acquitted Trump earlier this month, but managers who presented the case to senators said Trump’s tweet about Pence intentionally put the vice president’s life in danger. Twitter suspended Trump’s account on Jan. 8.
Pence did not address the tweet in the meeting with GOP lawmakers on Tuesday.
Pence met with more than a dozen Republican Study Committee members in his northern Virginia office to talk about the future of the GOP. A former House lawmaker, Pence is also a past chairman of the committee. Many of its members hope Pence will run for president at some point, but Pence gave no indication of his future political plans or whether he would run in 2024.
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“He made it very clear to everyone in the room that he was very proud of what they accomplished together,” Banks said. “His efforts, which I would expect to unfold in the coming months, will involve advocating and defending the Trump-Pence record from 2016 to 2020. And he remains very proud of that record.”
