Raskin: Pence was a hero on Jan. 6 for resisting ‘pressure campaigns’ and ‘coercive efforts’

Rep Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said on Sunday that former Vice President Mike Pence was a hero on Jan 6, 2021, for resisting pressure to overturn the 2020 election from former President Trump and his allies. 

During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” moderator Chuck Todd asked Raskin, a member of the select House panel investigating Jan. 6, if he considers Pence a hero for defying Trump’s orders. 

“Well, you know, in a time of absolutely scandalous betrayal of people’s oaths of office and crimes being committed all over the place, somebody who does their job and sticks to the law will stand out as a hero on that day,” Raskin replied. 

“And I think on that day he was a hero for resisting all of the pressure campaigns and the coercive efforts to get him to play along with this continuation of ‘the big lie,’ this big joke that he could somehow call off all the proceedings himself,” Raskin added. 

Raskin’s remarks come after the House panel last week detailed the pressure campaign on Pence leading up to the former president’s supporters’ attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Raskin on Sunday also responded to Trump’s latest verbal attack on the committee and Pence, saying that “we can’t allow” individuals to decide if they are above the law.

“Yeah, he’s essentially saying, ‘Yeah, I did it, and I’ll do it again,’ which is what we have been contending all along, that if you allow impunity for attempts at unconstitutional seizures of power, which is what a coup is, then you’re inviting it again in the future,” Raskin told Todd. 

“And to be a strong, self-sustaining, self-respecting democracy, we can’t allow people to decide that they are above the law and that they are more important than our constitutional prophecies,” he concluded.