Former Vice President Pence defends Constitution after getting Profile
in Courage Award
[May 05, 2025]
By MICHAEL CASEY
BOSTON (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday repeatedly
invoked the Constitution and said it is what “binds us all together”
after receiving the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.
Pence received the award for his refusal to go along with President
Donald Trump’s efforts to remain in office after losing the 2020
election. The award recognizes Pence “for putting his life and career on
the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on
Jan. 6, 2021,” the JFK Library Foundation said.
“To forge a future together, we have to find common ground,” Pence said.
“I hope in some small way my presence here tonight is a reminder that
whatever differences we may have as Americans, the Constitution is the
common ground on which we stand. It's what binds us across time and
generations. .... It's what makes us one people.”
His comments came hours after an interview with Trump aired in which he
was asked whether U.S. citizens and noncitizens both deserve due process
as laid out in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. Trump was
noncommittal.
“I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” Trump said when
pressed in an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker. It was taped Friday
at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and aired Sunday.
Pence never mentioned Trump during his 10-minute speech but made several
references to the Trump administration.
Referencing what he called “these divided times, in these anxious days,”
he acknowledged that he probably had differences with the Democrats in
the room but also with his own Republican Party “on spending, tariffs
and my belief that America is the leader of the free world and must
stand with Ukraine until the Russian invasion is repelled and a just and
lasting peace is secured."
Trump pressured Pence to reject election results from swing states where
the Republican president falsely claimed the vote was marred by fraud.
Pence refused, saying he lacked such authority. When a mob of Trump
supporters stormed the Capitol, some chanted that they wanted to “hang
Mike Pence.” Pence was whisked away by Secret Service agents, narrowly
avoiding a confrontation with the rioters.
“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,” Trump wrote at the time on
X, formerly Twitter, as rioters moved through the Capitol and Pence was
in hiding with his family, aides and security detail inside the
building.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence acknowledges a standing ovation as
he speaks after receiving the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage
Award during a ceremony at the JFK Library, Sunday, May 4, 2025, in
Boston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Pence rejected the Secret Service’s advice that he leave the
Capitol, staying to continue the ceremonial election certification
of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory once rioters were
cleared.
In describing his role, Pence told the audience that “by God's grace
I did my duty that day to support the peaceful transfer of power
under the Constitution of the United States of America.”
“Jan. 6 was a tragic day but it became a triumph of freedom. History
will record that our institutions held,” he said in his speech.
“Leaders in both chambers, in both political parties reconvened the
very same day and finished democracy's work under the Constitution.”
JFK’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, who along with his grandson Jack
Schlossberg presented the award, said Pence’s actions that day were
a reminder that you cannot take democracy for granted.
“At the time I thought Vice President Pence was just doing his job,”
she said. “Only later did I realize that his act of courage saved
our government and warned us about what could happen and is
happening right now.”
The Profile in Courage Award, named for a book Kennedy published in
1957 before he became president, honors public officials who take
principled stands despite the potential political or personal
consequences. Previous recipients of the award include former
Presidents Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford.
Pence has emerged as one of the few Republicans willing to take on
the Trump administration.
His political action group, Advancing American Freedom, campaigned
against the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the nation’s
health agencies. He’s delivered speeches urging the president to
stand with longtime foreign allies and posted an article he penned
more than a decade ago on the limits of presidential power after
Trump claimed that, “He who saves his Country does not violate any
Law.”
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