Former Vice President Mike Pence is responding to former President Donald Trump’s indictment in Georgia by saying the 2020 election results were not fraudulent and that he could not overturn them.
“Despite what the former president and his allies have said for now more than 2½ years and continue to insist to this very hour, the Georgia election was not stolen, and I had no right to overturn the election on January 6,” Mr. Pence told the National Conference of State Legislatures’ legislative summit in Indianapolis on Wednesday.
Mr. Pence said “no one is above the law” but Mr. Trump and his co-defendants “are entitled to the presumption of innocence” like all Americans.
Mr. Pence also commended Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for refuting Mr. Trump’s claims and defending the integrity of Georgia’s results in 2020.
Mr. Kemp, a Republican, scolded Mr. Trump after the ex-president announced plans to unveil evidence of Georgia election fraud at a Monday press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey.
“The 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen,” Mr. Kemp wrote Tuesday on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. “For nearly three years now, anyone with evidence of fraud has failed to come forward — under oath — and prove anything in a court of law. Our elections in Georgia are secure, accessible and fair and will continue to be as long as I am governor.”
Mr. Trump decried his criminal charges as “election interference” in a series of Truth Social posts on Thursday. He also urged GOP allies to rally to his defense.
“None of these trials should be allowed to begin prior to the Election. Republicans must get tougher and smarter, FAST!” he wrote.
