Scarborough: ‘Pence is in fear for his life because of Donald J. Trump’

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said Wednesday that former Vice President Mike Pence remains “in fear for his life because of Donald J. Trump,” faulting the former president for inciting the deadly riots by pro-Trump mobs at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

“We’re not talking about a debate over the Import-Export Bank. We’re not talking about a debate over the organization of the United States Senate, the procedures behind that,” Scarborough said. “We’re now talking about a movement and a president that inspired people to come to Capitol Hill to try to kill — their words, not mine — the vice president of the United States and the Speaker of the House.”

The “Morning Joe” host went on to claim the former vice president was “trying to lay low” in his home state of Indiana because “there are people now who have Mike Pence on their hit list, because of Donald Trump … Mike Pence is in fear for his life because of Donald J. Trump.”

Scarborough asserted the attack should be taken as seriously as those of Sept. 11, 2001, saying “you come after us, you come after our Capitol, we’re going to come after you … we sure as hell are not going to tell everybody ‘let’s just pretend this is going to go away.’ ”

Leading up to the Jan. 6 certification of the Electoral College results, Trump and his allies repeatedly falsely suggested that Pence, who presided over the certification, had the power to invalidate electors.

Trump called for Pence to assert such authority during his speech shortly before the breach of the Capitol. After Pence said he did not have the authority to contest the Electoral College results, Trump tweeted that his vice president had lacked “the courage” to do so. Video captured from the insurrection showed one group of rioters chanting “hang Mike Pence” as they attempted to push their way past police in riot gear to get into the Capitol.