Trump Fires Back at Pence: 'Blame Him for Jan. 6'

Former President Donald Trump fired back at former Vice President Mike Pence on Monday, saying the failure to proceed to debate on the 2020 Electoral College vote was the true cause of the Jan. 6 unrest at the Capitol.

"Had he sent the votes back to the legislatures, they wouldn't have had a problem with Jan. 6, so in many ways you can blame him for Jan. 6," Trump told reporters on Trump Force One, en route to his Monday night speech in Davenport, Iowa, The Washington Post reported.

"Had he sent them back to Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, the states, I believe, number one, you have had a different outcome," Trump continued. "But I also believe you wouldn't have had 'Jan. 6,' as we call it."

Trump was responding to Pence's most critical remarks yet of his former boss.

"President Trump was wrong," Pence told a Saturday Gridiron Dinner. "I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.

"Make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace — and it mocks decency to portray it any other way," added Pence.

Trump characterized the amped-up rhetoric from his former VP as being a politically opportunistic attack, amid Pence's own presidential aspirations.

"I guess he figured that being nice is not working," Trump told reporters on the plane, according to the Post. "But, you know, he's out there campaigning. And he's trying very hard. And he's a nice man, I've known him, I had a very good relationship until the end."

Trump repeated his position that Pence had authority — as evidenced by the Democrat-led Congress' immediate effort to change the laws.

"He had the right to send them back, otherwise they wouldn't have changed the Voting Act," Trump concluded on the plan. "They all said, 'He didn't have any rights at all, he was a human conveyor belt, he had no rights even if it was fraud.'

"And then the day after he did it, they said, 'Now we're going to change it so he doesn't do it.' Meaning, you understand that, meaning he had the right to do it," added Trump.

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