Post Politics Now: Trump to address conservative conference in wake of latest Jan. 6 hearing
Today, former president Donald Trump is slated to address a conference in Nashville of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a gathering of religious conservatives. His remarks come a day after the latest hearing by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at which witnesses testified about the pressure Trump placed on then-Vice President Mike Pence to help overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Meanwhile, President Biden headed to the beach Friday after having announced a series of climate-related initiatives, including steps to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, as part of a virtual forum with other nations. On Thursday, he made headlines on the economy in a rare sit-down interview with the Associated Press, insisting that a recession is “not inevitable” but acknowledging that Americans are “really down” after coping with the far-reaching consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and a long stretch of economic uncertainty punctuated by inflation and high gas prices.
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Trump says Pence had ‘no choice but to be a human conveyor belt’
Former president Donald Trump told his former vice president that he had the chance to be on the same level of one of the most consequential presidents in history if he refused to certify the 2020 presidential election results.
“So, I said, ‘Mike, if you do this, you can be Thomas Jefferson,’ ” the former president said Friday. “And then, after it all went down, I looked at him one day and I said, ‘Mike, hate to say this, but you’re no Thomas Jefferson.’ ”
Trump was speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Nashville to a group of socially conservative supporters. His comments came a day after the Jan. 6 committee questioned aides of Mike Pence about their conversations with Trump and his aides about the former president’s requests of Pence.
“Mike was afraid of whatever he was afraid of,” Trump said. “But as you heard a year and a half ago, Mike Pence had absolutely no choice but to be a human conveyor belt.”
“He had no choice. No matter what, he had to send those votes,” the former president said. “He had no ears, absolutely nothing that he could do. I said, ‘Well, what are you, a robot?’ I actually came up with the word conveyor belt. I thought it was a better word.”
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