South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a front-runner for former President Donald Trump’s running mate, questioned whether former Vice President Mike Pence acted appropriately in certifying the 2020 presidential election in a recent interview. refused to mention it.
Noem was asked whether he thought Pence did the right thing on Jan. 6, 2021, by overseeing the certification process in Congress and rebuffing Trump’s pressure to reject the results.
“The law has changed and that situation will never happen again, so I won’t answer hypothetical questions,” Noem told NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Report.”
“When I look back on that day, I wasn’t in that situation. I didn’t — I didn’t have the information that he had,” she said in an interview Monday, adding that Pence’s He doubled down on the same reaction he gave to CNN when he made his remarks. “Since that day, I have betrayed Donald Trump.”
A spokeswoman for Noem did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.
Mr. Noem’s comments about Mr. Pence this week come at a difficult time for him as he promotes his new book, “No Going Back,” a mix of autobiographical content and policy proposals.
Noem has faced bipartisan backlash over certain parts of her book, including where she said she killed a young dog and where she said she met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Ms. Noem said Monday that the anecdote about Mr. Kim should not have appeared in the book, but in an interview she declined to say whether she had met Mr. Kim. Her publisher confirmed this week that the passage would be removed.
In the same interview, Noem also criticized Pence for not supporting Trump in the 2024 election.
“I wish Mike Pence would support President Trump. That’s what’s frustrating to me right now,” she said.
Mr. Pence withdrew from the Republican primary in October and said in March that he would not support Mr. Trump. “President Trump and I have significant differences on a variety of issues, not just regarding the constitutional duties that we exercised on January 6,” he told Fox News at the time.
