Former Vice President Mike Pence says that former President Donald Trump did not "pressure" him to find evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Pence said as much during an interview that he did Saturday on CBS News's Face the Nation.
Significantly, Pence's comments on the matter contradict a new report that was published on Saturday by the Washington Post.
The report's title sums up its contents. It is: "Trump pressured Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to overturn 2020 election."
The Post's report, citing various anonymous sources, makes two big claims.
The first is this:
In a phone call in late 2020, President Donald Trump tried to pressure Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) to overturn the state’s presidential election results, saying that if enough fraudulent votes could be found it would overcome Trump’s narrow loss in Arizona, according to three people familiar with the call.
The bent-left Post, of course, wants to make it appear as though this is something really bad. But, is it wrong to ask someone to check for fraudulent votes? Would it not help to ensure the integrity of the election results?
The Post's second big claim involved Pence. The outlet writes:
Trump also repeatedly asked Vice President Mike Pence to call Ducey and prod him to find the evidence to substantiate Trump’s claims of fraud, according to two of these people. Pence called Ducey several times to discuss the election, they said, though he did not follow Trump’s directions to pressure the governor.
Trump, at the time of this writing, has not responded to the Post's report. But, Pence now has.
During his CBS interview, Pence admitted that he spoke with Ducey - and many other governors - to discuss the 2020 presidential election results.
But, Pence denied that Trump pressured him into doing so.
Pence said, "there was no pressure involved . . . I was calling to get an update. I passed along that information to the president. It was no more, no less, than that."
Pence, during the interview, also denied that Trump pressured him to pressure Ducey into changing Arizona's 2020 election results. "No, I don't remember any pressure," Pence said.
The former vice president then went on to discuss his disagreement with Trump regarding whether Pence had the authority, when he presided over Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, to reject state electors. But, Pence insisted that, in November and December 2020, "This was about information gathering, finding out what was going on."
