An MSNBC commentator cautioned viewers on Sunday that former President Donald Trump might react strongly as his onetime vice president is honored with a notable award.
Mike Pence, who distanced himself from Trump by affirming the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021, is set to be honored with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum on Sunday evening for his role on that significant day.
The JFK Library, in its announcement of Pence being the recipient of the award—which has previously been bestowed upon the likes of former President Barack Obama and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—commended Pence for putting ‘his life and career at risk to uphold the constitutional transition of presidential power,’ as reported by Politico.
Caroline Kennedy, the former president’s daughter, and her son, Jack Schlossberg, also said in a statement that Pence’s decision to certify the election results – even as protesters called for him to be hanged – was an ‘example of President Kennedy’s belief that an act of political courage can change the course of history.’
But when MSNBC hosts discussed the award on The Weekend in the hours before the ceremony was set to start, Jonathan Capehart said he was ‘most looking forward to’ President Trump’s reaction ‘because it’s totally going to be…’.
He then stopped talking, and instead mimed Trump’s head exploding.
Co-host Elise Jordan agreed, acknowledging: ‘Truth Social is going to be lighting up.’
Former Vice President Mike Pence was set to receive the prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum on Sunday night
He is being honored for going against President Donald Trump’s wishes and certifying the 2020 presidential election
Pence is being honored for his actions as a mob attacked on January 6, 2021
Trump, whose first term in office had just ended, pressured his then-vice president in January 2021 to reject election results from swing states where the Republican president claimed the vote was marred by fraud.
But Pence refused, saying he lacked such authority.
When he then stood before Congress on January 6 to accept the 2020 presidential election results, he and legislators from both parties were confronted by an angry mob – many of whom took specific aim at Pence for refusing to use his role to throw out the controversial Electoral College votes from the swing states.
Some Trump supporters even erected makeshift gallows and chanted ‘hang Mike Pence.’
During the House select committee on January 6th hearings, it also came out that a confidential informant on the Proud Boys had told the FBI that if members of the group had found Pence that day they would have killed him.
Still Pence refused to leave the Capitol, hiding out in a garage-like structure deemed a secure location within the complex.
‘The vice president did not want to take any chance that the world would see the vice president of the United States fleeing the United States Capitol,’ his counselor to the vice president Greg Jacob testified to committee members in 2022.
Meanwhile, Trump continued to push what has been called the ‘big lie’ that he lost the election and hit out at his vice president.
MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart suggested on Sunday that President Donald Trump will go ballistic as his former vice president is honored
Former US Rep Joe Kennedy III and his wife, Lauren Anne Birchfield, arrived at the JFK Library on Sunday for the award ceremony
Also present was comedian and television host David Letterman
The award is being given out by Caroline Kennedy and her son, Jack Schlossberg
‘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,’ Trump wrote at the time on X as rioters moved through the Capitol and Pence was in hiding with his family, aides and security detail inside the building.
Still, Pence stayed at the US Capitol to continue the ceremonial election certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory once the rioters were cleared.
But his decisions that day left Pence in the political wilderness.
He tried running against Trump for the 2024 nomination, but only stayed in the race through October 2023.
Trump – the far-and-away frontrunner – wouldn’t even participate in the GOP primary debates – so the two men never met onstage.
Pence then refused to endorse Trump once he secured the nomination – but also wouldn’t endorse the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Instead, his political action committee financed advertisements ahead of the 2024 election pushing Americans to vote for Republicans on issues.
Pence has been left in the political wilderness since he went against Trump
As a mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol that day, some suggested they wanted to hang Pence
It now remains unclear how much Pence has spoken with Trump since the January 6, 2021 certification.
But last year, the president chose Ohio Sen. JD Vance, rather than Pence, to serve as his running mate for his second term in office as he continued to claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
‘Against all odds, I did great in 2016. 2016, how great was that?’ Trump told graduates at the University of Alabama on Thursday night, according to the Alabama Political Reporter.
‘And then I did much better in 2020,’ he claimed. ‘Sorry the election was rigged… it was a rigged election. And then in 2024, I made it too big to rig.’
In private, though, Trump has apparently admitted he lost the 2020 election, according to comedian Bill Maher – who recently sat down with the president.
‘I don’t remember exactly what we were talking about, but it must have been something to do with the 2020 election because I know he used the word “lost” and I distinctly remember saying “Wow, I never thought I’d hear you say that,”‘ Maher recounted on his show, Real Time with Bill Maher.
‘He didn’t get mad,’ the talk show host continued, claiming the president is ‘much more aware than he lets on in public.’
