Karen Pence says she ‘never felt afraid’ on Jan. 6

Former second lady Karen Pence said she “never felt afraid” on Jan. 6, 2021, despite being whisked away from the Senate chamber by the Secret Service to hide from a mob that was targeting her husband, former Vice President Mike Pence, amid the attack on the Capitol. 

In an “ABC News Live Prime” interview that will air Monday night, Karen Pence made some of her first public remarks on the events that transpired that day and provided additional insight into the extensive safety precautions the former vice president and his family had to take during the transition after former President Trump lost the 2020 election.  

Asked whether she ever feared for her life on Jan. 6, Karen Pence responded, “Never.”

“I never felt afraid, and I really felt like we just had such a peace and God’s presence and just a sense of purpose and determination, that I don’t think any of us in the whole group — all the staff and everyone with us — I don’t think any of us felt fear,” she said. “I think we felt like a sense of resolve.”

Karen Pence was asked about her decision to close the drapes in the former vice president’s office after they were evacuated from the Senate chamber — a moment that is now documented in a well-known photo. 

She described her move as a result of the “conditioning” from her time as second lady and from the transition, in particular, when she and Mike Pence had to take additional security precautions.

“Once you become second lady, life changed a lot for us,” she said when asked about the photo. “In fact, during the transition, we rented a home near D.C., and I remember walking in that home the first day and Secret Service had put butcher block paper, you know, all over the windows, and you couldn’t even see outside. And every time we traveled they would have traveling bulletproof glass in every hotel room.”

“So it’s a conditioning thing, that I just knew: Whenever you’re in a situation where someone might be able to shoot through the window, just close the drapes,” she said. “That was my thinking at the time. I was like, ‘Wait a minute, things are starting to happen out there. Let’s close the drapes.’”

When asked when she realized her family could be in danger, Karen Pence further praised the Secret Service and said they always made it clear on Jan. 6 that the Pence team might need to vacate his office.

“Secret Service are phenomenal men and women, and they made it clear to us right away that, you know, there might be a point where we would need to move to a different location, so that was pretty clear to us from the very beginning. Because they had come and gotten us out of the Senate chambers and taken us back to Mike’s office in the Senate. So it was clear pretty early on that we might need to vacate that room and go somewhere else,” she said. 

Karen Pence’s interview comes as her husband mounts a bid for the presidency. Among his GOP opponents is his former running mate, Trump, who currently leads in virtually all hypothetical primary polls.

Pence’s resistance to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election is detailed in the most recent federal indictment against the former president. According to the indictment, Trump repeatedly asked Pence to take a more active role Jan. 6, when the vice president is tasked with presiding over a ceremonial process of counting the certified electoral votes. 

“You’re too honest,” Trump told Pence during one of the instances, according to the indictment. Pence subsequently started selling campaign merchandise with the words, “too honest.”