Former Vice President Mike Pence is attending President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, additional underscoring the returning commander-in-chief’s rising favorability in Washington.
“This can be a day when each American does nicely to rejoice our democracy and the peaceable switch of energy beneath the Structure of the USA,” Pence stated in a submit on X, previously often called Twitter, hours earlier than the ceremony.
He entered the Capitol Rotunda shortly after 11 a.m. Jap time, unaccompanied by his spouse.
Trump and his former operating mate have had a rocky relationship since Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump’s supporters rioted on the U.S. Capitol. Many who stormed the constructing additionally threatened violence towards Pence for refusing block certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
In a 2022 memoir, “So Assist Me God,” Pence, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination final yr, referred to as out Trump for threats to his personal security. He later slammed the president-elect, saying in a 2023 black-tie occasion speech that Trump’s “reckless phrases endangered my household and everybody on the Capitol that day.”
Trump clapped again through the marketing campaign, saying with out proof that his former operating mate was in charge for the riot “in some ways.”
However the two have made good in current weeks, at the least for the cameras that caught them shaking arms and exchanging temporary phrases on the Washington Nationwide Cathedral throughout former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral this month.
It was the primary time the 2 had been seen collectively publicly since Trump pushed Pence to not certify the votes for Biden’s electoral victory nearly precisely 4 years in the past.
Onlookers famous that Karen Pence, the previous second woman, didn’t shake arms with Trump and appeared to not acknowledge him both. Mike Pence didn’t touch upon that trade however advised Christianity In the present day that he congratulated Trump.
“In the present day, I’ll attend the Inauguration of President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance on the U. S. Capitol,” Pence stated Monday. “This can be a day when each American does nicely to rejoice our democracy and the peaceable switch of energy beneath the Structure of the USA.”
Pence could have dropped out early through the GOP main however he hasn’t walked away from politics given his remaining affect, significantly amongst social conservatives. He most lately urged Trump to help Taiwan within the occasion of a Chinese language invasion, for example
Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman
