Speaker 1: Let's move next to a mike Pence interview and a Ron DeSantis interview.
The question that I have for everybody who's listening today is do you think Mike Pence
doesn't answer questions because he doesn't have answers or because he is determined it's
not to his advantage to actually answer these questions for whatever reason there may be,
maybe that he still wants some way to try to appeal to Trump voters If the Trump voters
decide they want an alternative now, why they would go to Pence in that case?
I don't know.
That's the question that I have for you as we go through some of these clips.
Here is Mike Pence being interviewed over the weekend by CNN's Dana Bash.
Mike Pence first asked again, it's a question that many Republicans have been asked if the
Department of Justice has evidence that Trump committed a crime, should he be charged?
It's a very simple question.
It's a question about law and order.
It's a fundamental question.
If there's evidence of criminality, should the law enforce should law enforcement act
on that?
Here is what Mike Pence says.
Speaker 3: We appreciate it.
I want to start by asking about.
Thank you, Dana.
Good to be on.
Thank you.
About your former boss.
He is facing a potential third indictment over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
You said you, quote, Hope it doesn't come to that and the American people should decide
his future at the ballot box.
But I just want to be clear.
If the Justice Department has evidence that he committed a crime related to January six,
you do not think he should be charged.
Well, look, I. I know I did my duty that under the Constitution.
And frankly, as we traveled across New Hampshire this week to ten events and communities across
the state, I was deeply moved at how many people expressed their appreciation to me
for the stand that we took for the Constitution.
And I've said.
Speaker 1: Now you might be saying, David, did you cut the video?
Is this Mike Pence answer to some other question?
Like what have you been up to for the last week?
No.
This is his answer to the question.
If there's evidence of crimes against Trump, should he be charged.
Speaker 3: 13 times or that the president's words were reckless that day?
I had no right to overturn the election.
But while his words were reckless, based on what I know, I'm not yet convinced that they
were criminal.
I obviously wasn't there for every meeting.
Now, of course.
Speaker 1: Pence seems to be answering the question.
If you were voting to convict or acquit today, what would you do?
And Pence is saying, based on what I've seen publicly reported, I don't know that he committed
a crime.
It's not the question.
Of course.
The question is, if the DOJ has evidence of crimes, should Trump be charged?
If the answer is no, you're essentially saying that there should be a special justice system
for Trump specifically.
Speaker 3: I was busy trying to help reopen the government and the country after the COVID
pandemic.
I was spending a fair amount of time in Georgia.
Dan, as you were.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to play.
He doesn't answer the question any further than to say I don't believe that Trump did
commit crimes.
Why not just answer the question?
You could answer a question of this nature by saying, Dana, one of the most important
principles for me is Law, order and due process, and that no one is above the law.
However, I believe that in this particular case, whatever you could say that, but he
doesn't.
He talks about people he spoke to in diners in New Hampshire or whatever the case may
be after Pence says that he's not super worried about Donald Trump's rhetoric.
Dana Bash brings up you know, they wanted to hang you on January six.
You remember that, right?
Speaker 3: Talking about the potential for violence.
Donald Trump said this week, talked about how his supporters might react if he is charged
and faces potential jail time.
I think it's a very dangerous thing to even talk about because we do have a tremendously
passionate group of voters, much more passion than they had in 2020 and much more passion
than they had in 2016.
I think it would be very dangerous.
Does that kind of rhetoric worry you?
Well, it doesn't worry me because I have I have more confidence in the American people.
Speaker 1: Really, the same American people who built a gallows and wanted to hang you.
Wow.
You're very confident now.
Speaker 3: And in the people in our movement.
Look, it was one of the things that infuriated me on January six with was what I saw people
around.
Speaker 1: I was really mad when they wanted to hang.
Speaker 3: Me, ransacking the capital and engaging in violence against law enforcement
officers down.
I just I think the I would say not not just the majority, but the virtually everyone in
our movement are the kind of Americans who love this country, are patriotic or law and
order, people who would never have done anything like that there or anywhere else.
So I don't know.
I have more confidence in the American people than that.
I hear I heard my former running mate frustration in his voice.
But but I'm sure the American people will respond in our movement in a way that will
express as they have every right to under the First Amendment to.
Speaker 1: This is Pence filibustering to avoid a follow up.
But Dana Bash does follow up.
Speaker 3: Concerns that they have about what they perceive to be unequal treatment of the
law.
But I don't I'm not concerned about it beyond.
That's pretty remarkable that you're not concerned about it, given the fact that they wanted
to hang you on on January six.
I want to move on to the issues that you were talking about.
Wait a minute.
I want to say to you.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute.
There's been.
Speaker 3: An effort to take those that perpetrated violence on January six and use a broad brush
to describe to.
Speaker 1: Dana.
To be fair, only some of those people wanted to hang me.
Not everybody wanted to hang me.
Okay.
And then the topic of abortion comes up.
And again, he just doesn't answer the question.
Dana Bash asking if a woman's ultrasound shows that there is a non-viable fetus, would you
be okay with an exception there, or would the woman be forced to carry the non-viable
pregnancy to term?
And listen to what Mike Pence said.
This is unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Belongs do you support banning abortion even in cases where pregnancy isn't
viable?
So your question is, if a doctor looks at a woman's ultrasound, sees her fetus is missing
parts of its skull and a brain and eye, and I bring that up because it's a real scenario
that a woman testified to in Texas this week.
You're saying that the woman should still have to carry that child to term, even if
there's no chance the baby would survive.
Well, let me be clear about this, because we've got to be very clear on life.
Yeah.
Look, I'm pro-life, right?
But I've always recognized and accepted abortions in tragic circumstances rape, incest, the
life of the mother.
And it can lead to in cases like an ectopic pregnancy where the child simply cannot survive.
I would assume that that would be covered by the life of the mother.
Speaker 1: Wrong swing and miss not talking here about an ectopic pregnancy, which can
be very dangerous to the mother.
Dana Bash brings up a different scenario.
This is not an imaginary scenario.
This is a very real scenario.
You know, the Republicans often say, oh, these are edge cases.
They barely ever happened.
They don't really happen at all.
No, no, no.
This is a completely real scenario that happens.
Of course, it's not a majority situation, but in a country of 330 million people, it
happens many, many, many times.
It does not relate to the health of the mother.
It's the mother is fine, but the fetus is not developing normally.
It's missing critical pieces to survive.
It's not going to lead to a successful developing child at any point.
And he says, well, it's probably covered.
No, it's not.
It's not covered by life of the mother.
And again, refusing to answer the question, just to answer the questions.
And again, is it because he realizes that saying to the mother who is not at risk health
wise should be forced to carry that child to term?
That doesn't make any sense.
He knows that doesn't make any sense.
So we won't say it.
I don't know.
It would be nice to see some questions answered.
The better scenario is for no real questions to be asked.
That's what we're going to look
at next.