At a CNN town hall on Wednesday evening, Mike Pence made it clear that he did not intend to pardon those who had been charged for their involvement in the events that took place at the US Capitol building on January 6th. He strongly defended his choice, citing that 18 years of imprisonment was not harsh enough for their actions.

Pence is facing heavy scrutiny for refusing to heed the demands of many who wanted him to follow constitutional procedure and consider evidence before making any judgements or decisions regarding the individuals involved.

Moreover, many people have questioned why Pence has not faced repercussions himself considering he is responsible for taking classified documents without authorization. This has shed a negative light on his conduct and judgement which has greatly tarnished his public image.

Mike Pence said,

On the day of January 6 issued a tweet demanding that people leave the Capitol and end the violence. And I said that those that fail to do that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And I continue to believe that today we cannot ever allow what happened on January 6 to happen again in the heart of our democracy. And I’ll stand by the decisions and the due process of court in our law laws, and I have no interest or no intention of pardoning those that assaulted police officers or vandalized our capital. They need to be answerable to the law.

This is in direct opposition to what President Trump had said during his town hall just a few weeks ago. While he said that he would not pardon all of them, he said that he would pardon the ones who really didn’t do anything wrong. There are many who are in prison to this day because they were merely at the Capitol.