Steve Bannon darkly warned Mike Pence on Friday that the former vice president will take his decision not to overturn the 2020 presidential election “to your grave.”
Bannon’s comments came after Pence publicly defended his refusal to hijack the Electoral College certification process on Jan. 6, 2021, to negate Joe Biden’s victory. Trump was “wrong,” Pence said, to insist that a vice president has the power to single-handedly toss election results.
On his “War Room” podcast, Bannon unloaded on Pence. “You’re going to carry this thing eventually to your grave, OK? Because it is a mark of shame.”
Bannon also called Pence a “stone-cold coward” — twice — for upholding his oath of office and the Constitution in the face of a furious Trump and a mob of rioters at the Capitol.
“My head’s blowing up,” he said, adding, “I can’t take Pence.”
Bannon’s choice of words (“to your grave”) was particularly notable given that Jan. 6 rioters called for Pence to be “hanged” for not following Trump’s orders and constructed a makeshift gallows outside the Capitol.
CNN’s Jim Acosta later called Bannon’s wording “code” and “essentially a threat” against the former vice president. (Check out the video clip up top.)
Bannon is facing trial this summer on charges of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence’s comments came during a speech in Orlando, Florida, to hundreds of members of the conservative Federalist Society, a week after Trump offered possible pardons to Jan. 6 rioters in the event he’s reelected — while also calling for Pence to be “investigated.”
“The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone,” Pence said. “Frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”
Trump responded to Pence’s speech late Friday, baselessly insisting yet again that Pence had the power to refuse to certify electoral votes because of election “fraud” — which the former president has yet to present a shred of evidence to support.