Pence is clearly trying to raise his polling numbers.
The campaign of former Vice President Mike Pence strongly condemned Vivek Ramaswamy for what they saw as a shifting stance on the January 6th incident. They highlighted instances where Ramaswamy’s positions appeared to be inconsistent with his previous remarks condemning the event.
According to Fox, Pence’s campaign pointed out that on August 4, 2023, Ramaswamy declined to commit to certifying the 2020 election results if he were in a similar position as of January 6, 2021. However, during a recent GOP debate, he expressed support for Mike Pence’s actions in upholding the Constitution.
The campaign referred to a January 11, 2021, op-ed penned by Ramaswamy for The Wall Street Journal, in which he characterized the “shameful Capitol riot” as a “blemish on American history.” On January 12, 2021, Ramaswamy reiterated this sentiment in a statement, stating that he had previously voiced his condemnation of Trump’s actions.
Additional examples were cited by the Pence campaign, including passages from Ramaswamy’s book “Nation of Victims,” published in 2022. In it, Ramaswamy criticized Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the election and compared his claims to those of Stacey Abrams.
Ramaswamy’s perspective on the Capitol riot appeared to shift in June and July, as he adopted a more sympathetic outlook. He expressed intentions to pardon all individuals targeted by politically charged federal prosecutions, including peaceful protesters from January 6th. He also attributed the incident to what he called “pervasive censorship,” suggesting that restricting speech could lead to such events.
During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Ramaswamy addressed the issue once more. He now asserts that he would have advocated for voting process reforms and tied the certification of election results to the passage of these reforms.