Pence says “I don’t remember any pressure” on state governors after 2020 election

In an interview on Saturday with “Face the Nation,” former Vice President Mike Pence said that there was “no pressure involved” in former President Donald Trump’s requests for him to call former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in the days and weeks following the 2020 election . 

The Washington Post reported Saturday that Trump tried to pressure Ducey, a fellow Republican, after the 2020 election to overturn the election results in his state, which President Biden won by more than 10,000 votes. According to the Post, Trump also urged Pence to call Ducey and prod him to find evidence of voter fraud in Arizona.  

Pence confirmed to CBS News that he did call Ducey following the 2020 election to discuss election results. 

“I did check in, with not only Gov.  Ducey, but other governors and states that were going through the legal process of reviewing their election results,” Pence told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan. “But there was no pressure involved. Margaret, I was calling to get an update. I passed along that information to the president. It was no more, no less, than that.”

When asked if he had been pressured by Trump to (different word here—let’s use “prod” or “push”-MH) Ducey to change the election results in Arizona, Pence said no.

“No, I don’t remember any pressure,” Pence said. 

“Look, the president and I, things came to a head at the end,” he continued. “I did my duty under the Constitution that day in presiding over a joint session of Congress in the aftermath of the mayhem and the rioting. But in the days of November, and December, this was an orderly process. You’ll remember there were more than 60 lawsuits underway, states were engaging in appropriate reviews and that these contacts were no more than that.”

When asked if Trump had pressured him to exert influence over any state governor, Pence once again said no.

“The president expressed his strong belief that I had authority that I did not have under the Constitution in the closing days,” said Pence, referring to Trump’s private and public pressure on Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. 

“But [in November and December 2020],” Pence said, “this was about information gathering, finding out what was going on.”

In April, Pence testified for over seven hours before a federal grand jury investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Pence’s testimony came  after a three-judge panel  ruled that he was required to provide testimony despite Pence’s attempt to resist the subpoena by claiming he was protected by the “speech or debate clause”  of the Constitution. 

Special counsel Jack Smith is leading the investigation into Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results . Smith’s team is also leading the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents. In June, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted Trump on 37 counts related to the sensitive documents recovered at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.