Ex US President Trump defended Capitol rioters chanting ‘hang Mike Pence’: Reports

Former US President Donald Trump defended the January 6 rioters’ chants “hang Mike Pence” saying that the slogans were “understandable” given the aggravation among his supporters surrounding the election certification of the then Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Biden, audiotapes released on Friday revealed.

According to the audiotapes of ABC News' Jonathan Karl’s interview with the former US president in March at his at Mar-a-Lago resort, which was made accessible to the US broadcasters, Trump appeared to defend the unruly mob’s behaviour that had broken into the US' Capitol building to halt the election certification of Joe Biden.

The excerpts from Trump’s audio were recorded for Karl’s upcoming book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show and were first obtained on Friday by NBC News from ABC News' "This Week.” 

"Were you worried about his (Mike Pence's) safety? Were you worried about his safety?" Karl asks in the audio. "NO," replies Trump, adding that he had heard Pence was "in a good shape." 

'It’s common sense, Jon. It’s common sense,' Trump says supporting Jan. 6 rioters

In the audio, now available with scores of media houses, when asked if he was worried about the then Vice President Mike Pence’s safety during the January 6 riot, former President Trump casually said, “I thought he was well-protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape. Well, the people were very angry,” NBC reported. He went on to justify that the MAGA supporters that were involved in violent behaviour and were calling for Pence to be killed were just simply frustrated. 

“They said, ‘hang Mike Pence,’” Karl in the audio tapes seemingly told the former US President to obtain his reaction on the insurrection. “It’s common sense, Jon. It’s common sense that you’re supposed to protect,” Trump said in his response. “How can you, if you know a vote is fraudulent, right, how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress?” he said.

On the contrary, at an event in New Hampshire, former US Vice President Mike Pence had called the January 6 riot a “dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.” He had also stated that he may "never see eye to eye” with Trump about the event. 

In a bid to strengthen the case against former US President Donald trump’s role in inciting the Capitol insurrection, the impeachment managers from the Democratic Party had also earlier released the security footage for the first time since the attack. On day two of Trump’s second historic impeachment trial, one of the many ‘never-seen-before’ videos released depicted Pence coming just a few hundred feet from the rioters when he was immediately escorted to safety.

The clip also showed Republican senator and Trump critic Mitt Romney and Chuck Schumer, who had to turn around to avoid the mob. The phrase 'hang Mike Pence' was heard as the pro-Trump MAGA crowd illegally stormed the federal building, mounted a putsch, roamed inside the Congressional halls, sat and accessed documents in US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, and confronted law enforcement, broke windows, slammed doors in arson like behaviour.