Former Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that the Department of Justice’s new compensation fund should be scrapped, calling it “deeply offensive” that it could provide payments to people who assaulted police officers or vandalized the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Pence criticized the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, which was established to compensate people who claim they were unfairly targeted by the federal government.
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“The weaponization fund is a bad idea from the start, and I would encourage the administration just to drop it,” Pence said. “Let’s get rid of this fund. I mean, it’s deeply offensive to me that you could have a fund that could even possibly compensate people who assaulted police officers or vandalized the Capitol on Jan. 6.”
Pence added that he believed the view was “broadly held by most Republicans and most Americans.”
The anti-weaponization fund was temporarily blocked by a federal judge on Friday.
The former vice president’s comments came in response to a question about whether people involved in the Jan. 6 attack could ever receive government compensation. The fund has drawn scrutiny because some pardoned Jan. 6 defendants could seek payments if they argue they were improperly investigated or prosecuted.
Pence has long been one of the most prominent Republican critics of efforts to downplay the violence of Jan. 6. The issue is particularly personal for the former vice president, who was presiding over Congress’s certification of the 2020 presidential election when supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.
As rioters breached the building, Pence, his family, and aides were rushed to a secure location. Some members of the mob chanted “Hang Mike Pence” after Trump publicly criticized him for refusing to block the certification of former President Joe Biden’s victory.
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While Pence and Trump have largely avoided direct clashes since Trump returned to office, Pence has repeatedly defended law enforcement officers who responded to the attack and argued that those who committed acts of violence should be held accountable.
On Sunday, Pence said the DOJ already has the authority to resolve legitimate claims without maintaining a separate compensation fund. He pointed to a recent settlement involving an anti-abortion family that alleged mistreatment by the Biden administration, possibly referring to the Mark Houck case, saying such cases can be handled individually.
