Former Vice President Mike Pence said Saturday that he found the Manhattan district attorney’s potential indictment of ex-President Trump “deeply troubling,” but stressed that “violence will not be tolerated” as the former president called for protests.
Trump said in a message to Truth Social that he awaiting arraignment Tuesday in connection with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
“The idea of ​​impeaching the former president of the United States is deeply troubling to me, as it is to tens of millions of Americans,” Pence told reporters in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday. “And it’s especially so in a politically charged environment in New York, where the attorney general and other elected officials have literally been on the campaign trail promising to bring the former president to justice.”
“No one is above the law,” he added. “I’m sure President Trump can take care of himself.”
He joined a number of other Republicans who shot down the potential charge as “politically motivated” and “abuse of power”.
“Here we are again — a flagrant abuse of power by a radical prosecutor’s office that allows violent criminals to walk while it seeks political revenge against President Trump,” Speaker Kevin McCarthy (D-Calif.) wrote on Saturday.
However, amid Trump’s call for his supporters to protest and “take back our nation” in response to possible impeachment, Pence noted that “violence will not be tolerated.”
“We respect the right of the American people to be heard and to express their dismay at what appears to be a politically motivated prosecution of the former president,” he said. “But we want to send a very clear message that violence will not be tolerated and anyone who engages in violence will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney and longtime fixer, in comparison the former president’s call for protests Saturday over the “battle cry” he issued before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“It would be smart for Donald to write ‘peaceful protest,’ but he doesn’t want a peaceful protest,” Cohen told MSNBC. “He wants another violent clash on his behalf.”
Cohen, who testified before a New York grand jury earlier this week, paid Daniels $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election to retract her story about an alleged affair with Trump. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in connection with the payment.