“The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said Monday that she “got emotional” watching former Vice President Mike Pence give his account of the Capitol riot.
The first segment of ABC News’ exclusive interview with Pence, released Sunday, showed the former vice president asserting that former President Donald Trump “endangered” him, his family and others inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Griffin said her personal connection with Pence made the interview “hard” for her “to watch.”
“Watching that clip back, I got emotional watching it,” she said. “I traveled all over the world with Mike Pence. Regardless of what you think of him, and I worked for him for two years, I got to know his family, I got to know his daughter, Charlotte, and I give her being in the Capitol that day when that happened. It’s just, it’s just hard for me watch and I’m glad he’s coming out and saying this.”
She then read an excerpt of an op-ed she wrote claiming that Republicans “have lost the moral high ground as a party” by “lying” about the 2020 presidential election results and for allegedly having “boosted extremists.”
“We deserve to get clobbered because we have boosted extremists, we boosted election deniers and now I am hoping and I am praying that this is a moment where the country says turn the page on Donald Trump for good,” Griffin continued. “I don’t ever want to watch a video again of an American vice president talking about how the former president incited a mob against him, a mob chanting to hang him on American soil. That’s not who we are as a country so I hope this is a wake up moment for us.”
Co-host Ana Navarro said she has “zero emotional reaction” to watching the interview because Pence defended Trump throughout his four years in office and “gave him legitimacy” with evangelicals.
Pence oversaw the certification of the Electoral College votes to confirm then-President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the election. Trump falsely claimed that the then-vice president had the power to overturn the election results, though only Congress is granted to object to state electors’ votes under the Electoral Count Act of 1887. (RELATED: Pence Smacks Down Idea He Could Have ‘Overturned’ 2020 Election)
A handful of rioters at the Capitol called to “hang Mike Pence” over his leading role in certifying the electoral votes. The former vice president, his family, and lawmakers inside the Capitol evacuated the main portions of the building and remained under lockdown for the remainder of the riot. He remained in a loading dock for approximately four to five hours and refused to evacuate the building despite the threats toward him, according to Business Insider.
