Pence Calls Trump’s Anti-Weaponization Fund ‘Totally Unacceptable’

Never one to shy from his objections, Vice President Mike Pence says President Trump’s decision to set up a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” is “totally unacceptable.”While promoting his new book “What Conservatives Believe,” Mr. Pence adopted language used by many Democrats to speak out against Mr. Trump’s so-called “slush fund” for those who were prosecuted for attacking the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “I’ll never minimize what happened on January 6th,” Mr. Pence said during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “This talk of a ‘weaponization fund’ … The idea of creating a fund that could compensate people who assaulted police officers and vandalized the Capitol that day is totally unacceptable,” the former vice president said. “My hope in the administration will drop it — drop the idea entirely.”Messrs. Trump and Pence arguably had the most famous falling out in modern American political history after the then-vice president refused to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. His decision to oversee the certification of President Biden’s victory led to his expulsion from the highest echelons of Republican politics. Mr. Pence has long defended himself from critics who say he could have sent the 2020 Electoral College vote totals back to states’ respective legislatures, where Republicans officials would have handed Mr. Trump a victory. He refused to leave the Capitol that day for fear that the orderly transfer of power would be disrupted. A few Republican members of Congress have mentioned potentially introducing legislation to either limit the fund’s scope or to shut it down altogether. That comes after a pre-Memorial Day delay in the Senate on a vote for the Republicans’ $70 billion immigration enforcement funding bill. The bill includes $1 billion for the Secret Service, more than $200 million of which would be used for Mr. Trump’s ballroom — another project that Republican senators don’t love. Congress returns to Capitol Hill this week.Mr. Pence praised GOP senators for taking a stand. “I’ve been heartened by the number of Republican senators who have spoken out against it,” he said. “The people that assaulted police officers on January 6th and vandalized our Capitol should not get one dime of taxpayer money from that fund or anywhere else.” He pointed to the fact that the Justice Department settles cases all the time without having to set up special funds. Mr. Pence noted the case of a pro-life Catholic, Mark Houck, who was charged with violating a law protecting abortion clinics but later acquitted.Mr. Houck won a seven-figure settlement after suing the federal government. “We don’t need slush funds to settle cases,” Mr. Pence said. “The DOJ can settle these issues where people have had their rights trampled on and ought to do that.”The existence of Mr. Trump’s new settlement structure is unique in that it arose from the president’s own lawsuit against the IRS. If the fund survives congressional scrutiny, then five individuals — all of whom will be appointed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — will decide who gets money, and how much they receive.

Pence Calls Trump’s Anti-Weaponization Fund ‘Totally Unacceptable’

Pence Calls Trump’s Anti-Weaponization Fund ‘Totally Unacceptable’

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