BOSTON, Mass. – Former Vice President Mike Pence was honored on Sunday night for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, in defying his then-boss, President Donald Trump.
Pence received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his refusal to honor Trump’s request to throw out the results of the 2020 presidential election, and instead oversaw congressional certification of former President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
‘Vice President Pence put his life career and that of his family on the line to execute his constitutional responsibilities. His actions preserved the fundamental democratic principle of free and fair elections and we are proud to honor him,’ former ambassador Caroline Kennedy, the late President Kennedy’s daughter, said in presenting Pence with the award.
Pence, in accepting the annual award, emphasized that it’s a ‘distinction that I will cherish for the rest of my life.’
And the former vice president, pointing to his actions on Jan. 6, said to a standing ovation, ‘I will always believe by God’s grace that I did my duty that day.’
In a Fox News Digital interview minutes after the awards ceremony, Pence said, ‘in all my travels across the country in the last four years, I’ve been deeply humbled by how many Americans have come up to me and just taken a point to encourage us and support us, and it convinces me that the American people know that what ever differences we may have, the Constitution is the common ground on which we stand.’
The now-65-year-old Pence was Indiana’s governor when Trump named him his running mate in 2016. For four years, Pence served as the loyal vice president to Trump during the president’s first term in the White House.
However, everything changed on Jan. 6, 2021, as right-wing extremists — including some chanting ‘hang Mike Pence’ — stormed the U.S. Capitol aiming to upend congressional certification, overseen by Pence as part of his constitutional duties as vice president, of Biden’s Electoral College victory.
The attack on the Capitol took place soon after Trump spoke to a large rally of supporters near the White House about unproven claims that the 2020 election was ‘rigged’ due to massive ‘voter fraud.’
Pence has long described the violent attack on the Capitol as ‘tragic’ and dishonoring to ‘the millions of people who had supported our cause around the country.’ He has emphasized that he did ‘the right thing’ and performed his ‘duty under the Constitution.’ He has also noted a number of times that he and Trump may never ‘see eye to eye on that day.’
While Pence, his family and top aides were hastily moved by Secret Service agents as rioters roamed the halls of the Capitol, Trump argued in a social media post that ‘Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify.’
Pence rejected the advice of the Secret Service that he flee the Capitol, and after the rioters were eventually removed from the Capitol, he resumed his constitutional role in overseeing the congressional certification ceremony.
The former vice president has repeatedly refuted Trump’s claim that he could have overturned the presidential election results. Despite that, hardcore Trump loyalists have never forgiven Pence, whom they view as a traitor, for refusing to assist the president’s repeated efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Pence in June 2023 launched a presidential campaign of his own, joining a large field of challengers to Trump gunning for the 2024 GOP nomination, becoming the first running mate in over 80 years to run against their former boss.
Pence ran on a traditional conservative platform, framing the future of the Republican Party against what he called the rise of ‘populism’ in the party.
Among the slim anti-Trump base of the Republican Party, Pence received praise for his courage during the attack on the Capitol, often receiving thanks at town halls during his campaign for standing up to Trump.
While Pence regularly campaigned in the crucial early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, his White House bid never took off. Struggling in the polls and with fundraising, he suspended his campaign just four and a half months after declaring his candidacy.
The Profile in Courage Award is named for a book the late John F. Kennedy published in 1957 before he became president.
The award honors public officials who take principled stands despite the potential political or personal consequences. Among the previous recipients were former Presidents Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford.
Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson, who introduced the former vice president at the awards ceremony, said Pence ‘saved America that day.’
Caroline Kennedy, in honoring the former vice president, noted her ‘political differences’ with Pence, but emphasized that ‘political courage is not outdated in the United States.’
And Pence, a well-known fiscal and social conservative, joked about speaking in front of an audience dominated by Democrats, saying that he was ‘the minority in this room.’
After dropping his own bid for the White House, Pence declined to endorse Trump, even after Trump clinched the GOP nomination last spring, though he did congratulate his former running mate after his victory last November.
Trump and Pence were seen shaking hands at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral in early January – their first public appearance together in nearly four years.
Pence has emerged as a rare vocal Republican critic of Trump so far during the president’s second tour of duty in the White House.
He has critiqued Trump’s controversial and haphazard implementation of massive tariffs on America’s largest trading partners, which initially sparked a massive stock market sell-off, and raised concerns of increased inflation and talk of a recession.
He has also criticized the president’s upending of longstanding American foreign policy and has urged Trump to stand with longtime international allies.
Pence’s public advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom, also campaigned against the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the nation’s health agencies.