Pence Says He’s Ready to Take on Trump Post-Indictment

Former Vice President Mike Pence, a star witness in the criminal case against Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 insurrection, said Wednesday that he’s ready to face Trump on the debate stage — if he can get enough donors by Aug. 21. 

“I debated Trump a thousand times over four years, just not with the cameras on,” Pence said Wednesday on Fox News. 

Trump, who was indicted Tuesday on four counts related to his efforts to subvert his 2020 election loss, appears to have been watching the interview. Shortly after Pence got off-air, Trump posted an attack against Pence on his social media platform.

“I feel badly for Mike Pence, who is attracting no crowds, enthusiasm, or loyalty from people, who, as a member of the Trump Administration, should be loving him,” Trump wrote. 

Pence also took a shot at his other Republican opponents, many of whom have already qualified for the debate in Milwaukee on Aug. 23. 

“I look forward to having that debate with him and all the also-rans on the stage,” he told Fox News. 

But Pence will first need to collect donations from at least 40,000 separate donors to qualify for the event. He told Fox he expected to hit that mark in the next 7-10 days and has been collecting about 1,000 new donors a day.

Pence, who is referenced extensively throughout the special counsel’s 45-page indictment of Trump, said again Wednesday that Trump was wrong to claim he could single-handedly overthrow their election loss in 2020. 

Pence stepped up his criticism of Trump yesterday after the indictment was published, saying that Trump “should never be president again” for choosing his own benefit over the Constitution. 

But Pence said he was unsure that a criminal prosecution was the proper way to respond to the Jan. 6 insurrection. 

“At the end of the day, history will hold Donald Trump accountable for his reckless words and actions on that day,” he said. 

National polling before the historic indictment was unsealed Tuesday evening showed Trump with a commanding lead over the rest of the field, with the support of at least 50% of expected Republican voters.

Read the entirety of Trump's latest indictment: