Former Vice President Mike Pence was attacked by former President Donald Trump’s allies when he declared his former boss was “wrong” about his potential to change the 2020 election results.

When Congress met on January 6, 2021, to declare President Joe Biden’s Electoral College win, Trump encouraged Pence to reject electors from several crucial battleground states. Inevitably, the then-vice president declined, claiming that such action would be unlawful. Trump proposed last week that Pence be probed for refusing to assist overturn the will of the people.

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Pence then addressed at a conservative Federalist Society event in Florida on Friday, telling attendees that Trump is “wrong” to assume such power.

“But there are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress, I possessed unilateral authority to reject electoral college votes. And I heard this week, President Trump said I had the right to ‘overturn the election,'” the former vice president told the conservative audience.

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“President Trump is wrong,” he said, adding that he “had no right to overturn the election.”

Trump’s supporters were eager to chastise and insult Pence, criticising him for supporting the Constitution. During a Saturday episode of right-wing strategist Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, described the last time he visited with Pence in the White House prior of January 6. According to the Republican legislator, he understood at the time that the former vice president would not comply with Trump’s requests.

“It was more just the defeatism in his eyes and in his tone,” Gaetz said. The GOP lawmaker went on to argue that “there are not a lot of places in the MAGA [Make America Great Again] universe where Mike Pence can go and not get booed off the stage.”

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Bannon on Friday launched a blistering attack against Pence for saying Trump was “wrong.” The former White House strategist, who served as CEO of Trump’s 2016 campaign, called him a “stone cold coward.”

“Pence, you’re going to carry this thing eventually to your grave, OK?” Bannon said. “Because it is a mark of shame. You are a stone-cold coward.”

Earlier in the week, conservative Trump ally Roger Stone blasted Pence, saying he was a “disloyal POS.”

“If you ever had any doubt whatsoever that former Vice President Mike Pence was a duplicitous, disloyal POS, this stunning article will remove any doubt. Pence and his staff of ‘political advisors’ were working to undermine President Trump [and replace him with Mike Pence] from day ONE,” on Thursday, he posted a message to his Telegram subscribers. Stone, who was granted a formal pardon by Trump in December 2020, published a Substack piece titled The Treachery of Vice President Mike Pence Explained by Emerald Robinson.

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Stone’s remark came after Trump urged that Pence be investigated for refusing to participate in the illegal plot. In that statement, Trump chastised Pence for failing to send “back the vote for recertification or approval” to the states, claiming that his vice president had the “right to do so.”

Trump responded to Pence’s statements on Friday with another statement.

“Just saw Mike Pence’s statement on the fact that he had no right to do anything with respect to the Electoral Vote Count,” the former president said on Friday evening. Trump said Pence’s refusal to cave to his pressure amounted to “a great opportunity lost.”

“I was right and everyone knows it,” Trump insisted.

Trump’s previous criticism of Pence in the run-up to the 2021 election resulted in threats of violence against the then-vice president from his supporters. Hundreds of pro-Trump rioters rushed the United States Capitol that day, chanting “hang Mike Pence” and setting up a gallows outside the federal legislative building. Regardless, Pence fulfilled his constitutional duty and oversaw Biden’s Electoral College victory’s formal certification.

Pence told Fox News in January that he hadn’t spoken with Trump in several months but that they were still on excellent terms. He said that the last time they spoke was “last summer,” and that certifying Biden’s victory with Congress was his “duty under the Constitution.”

Pence described the attack on the U.S. Capitol as “a dark day” in June 2021.

“You know, President Trump and I have spoken many times since we left office. And I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye-to-eye on that day. But I will always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years,” the former vice president told the audience at a Lincoln-Reagan Dinner fundraiser sponsored by the Hillsborough County Republican Committee in Manchester, New Hampshire.