Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been widely mocked on social media after saying the way his Democratic rival Kamala Harris treated his former vice president Mike Pence was “horrible.”
On Sunday, a clip was circulated online from an interview of the former president with Fox News‘s Mark Levin on Saturday.
“Now, they have Kamala who has many deficiencies, but she’s a nasty person,” Trump said. “The way she treated Mike Pence was horrible. The way she treats people is horrible.”
The clip was posted on X by user @Acyn, the senior digital editor of MeidasTouch, a Trump-critical news site, on Sunday night. It had been viewed 2.3 million times by Monday morning.
Trump did not specify what incident he was referring to, but he may have meant Harris was “horrible” to Pence in the vice-presidential debate where the two clashed in 2020. Newsweek has contacted Harris’s campaign via email for comment outside normal working hours.
But users online were quick to point to the irony of Trump’s statement, given the danger he put the former vice president in by calling on him to refuse to certify the 2020 election on January 6, 2021.
MSNBC correspondent Molly Jong-Fast reposted the clip, simply captioned “Ummmm,” while frequent Trump critic @NYinLA2121 wrote: “You thought what Kamala did was horrible, you’re gonna want to sit down when I tell you how his former boss treated him. It’s a doozy.”
David Corn, the Washington D.C. bureau chief for Mother Jones wrote: “What? Did she call him the p-word and incite the violent mob that chanted ‘Hang Mike Pence’? Because if she did, she probably should drop out of the race.”
Mike Pence, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris. Trump has been widely mocked on social media after saying the way Harris treated Pence was “horrible.”
Kent Nishimura, Christian Minterrosa, Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Jason Selvig, a frequent Trump critic and one half of the political comedy duo The Good Liars, wrote: “Kamala Harris famously sent a mob of Trump supporters to the Capitol after Mike Pence.”
After losing the 2020 presidential election, Trump pressured Pence to invoke his power as presiding officer of the Senate to reject the Electoral College votes declaring Biden the winner.
At 1:00 a.m. on January 6, Trump posted on X, then called Twitter, “If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency.”
At 8:17 a.m., Trump wrote: “States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”
According to The New York Times, Trump called Pence at some point in the morning of January 6. Two people briefed on the conversation told the newspaper that Trump said to Pence, “You can either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a p****.”
From about 1 p.m., protesting Trump supporters started to riot outside the U.S. Capitol building. Some rioters constructed a noose and gallows and chanted “hang Mike Pence” as they stormed the building.
At about 2 p.m., the mob breached the Capitol building while Pence was inside participating in the election certification process.
At 2:13 p.m., a Secret Service Agent evacuated Pence from the Senate chamber. One minute later, the mob came within 40 feet of the office where Pence was hiding.
At 2:17 p.m., Trump, who was watching the events on television, wrote on Twitter, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”
Trump’s post has now been deleted.
Pence has not endorsed Trump in his 2024 presidential run.
