During an interview with CNN on Thursday, former Vice President Mike Pence stated that the indictment of former President Donald Trump is a nonsense case that might not even make it to trial, and “the media’s obsession about these investigations into Donald Trump, I think is being lost on the American people who are struggling under the weight of the failed policies of the Biden administration.”
Pence said that the indictment is an “outrage. And it appears, to millions of Americans, to be nothing more than a political prosecution that’s driven by a prosecutor who literally ran for office on a pledge to indict the former President.”
Pence added that the bar for indictments is “very low” and noted that other prosecutors passed on the case.
He further stated, “I’m traveling around the country a lot. My wife and I are going through a process of making decisions about our future. … I was just in Iowa yesterday, I’ll tell you, I was [in] three different cities, and even though this has been in the news over the last two weeks and issues about me and another investigation were in the news, not one person raised this issue to me. And I have to tell you, the media’s obsession about these investigations into Donald Trump, I think is being lost on the American people who are struggling under the weight of the failed policies of the Biden administration. But look, this — I think the American people are going to look at this, see it as one more example of the criminalization of politics in this country, and it’s one more example of the kind of drama that captures Washington, D.C. and makes it almost impossible for us to solve the problems that this country is facing.”
Host Wolf Blitzer then asked if Trump should drop out of the 2024 race if he’s convicted.
Pence responded that he’ll answer that question if the issue comes up, but it will be a while before it ever does, and “There’s a possibility that a judge will even throw this case out before it would even go to trial. So, I don’t want to talk about hypotheticals and all this. What I want to tell you about is the American people are struggling under the failed policies of the Biden administration at home and abroad. And in an open forum in Iowa, where the caucuses take place, where the national conversation has always begun historically about the future leadership of the country, this never came up. I honestly have to tell you that I think this is an outrage, but I also think, at a time when the American people are struggling so much, that this will only further serve to divide our country…the message that this sends to the wider world is a terrible message about the American justice system.”
He added that the charge “smacks of political prosecution.” And “I can’t speak to the merits of this case at all, but I can speak to the issue emanating out of a question over campaign finance should never have risen to the level to bring an unprecedented and historic prosecution against the former President. … Look, this is an issue about campaign finances and it’s tenuous at best.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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