在国会山为他欢呼的同时维护他的宪法职责在去年的国会大厦袭击中，他的助手描述了他当时的情况敦促帮助推翻2020年选举——前副总统迈克·彭斯在公开场合关注其他问题。
在周一的讲话中，彭斯希望超越2021年1月6日短暂迫使他锁定的致命骚乱，并试图翻过由时任总统唐纳德·特朗普领导的压力运动的一页，寻求让彭斯拒绝选举结果。
彭斯最近一次露面是在周一的芝加哥大学俱乐部，与调查暴徒的特别众议院委员会正在举行的听证会分屏。
在芝加哥和其他地方，彭斯只是简短地提到了叛乱，而是批评了乔·拜登总统的记录，并吹捧他与前总统特朗普并肩作战四年的时间。
“在过去的几年里，我们都经历了很多，”彭斯在芝加哥的演讲中说。“全球疫情，社会动荡，分裂的选举，我们国家首都悲惨的一天——以及一个似乎每天都在把我们的经济推向社会主义福利国家深渊的政府。”
“1月6日是悲惨的一天，我知道我们尽了我们的责任。但我将永远为我们的记录感到骄傲，”彭斯补充道在一次采访中和福克斯新闻频道一起。“我不会允许民主党人利用这一悲惨的一天转移人们对他们失败议程的注意力，或者贬低支持我们事业的7400万美国人的意图。”
彭斯还在讲话中多次提到“特朗普-彭斯”政府，并在本周接受福克斯商业采访时表示，他认为“我一生中从未有过像拜登这样与美国人民更加脱节的总统”。
这些评论标志着彭斯今年早些时候的姿态有所不同，当时他强烈否认特朗普一再声称他有能力推翻上次总统竞选。
“特朗普总统错了。我无权推翻选举，”彭斯在2月的一次演讲中说。“总统职位属于美国人民，而且只属于美国人民。坦率地说，没有比任何一个人都可以选择美国总统更非美国化的想法了。”
与此同时，随着众议院听证会的举行，民主党人和其他特朗普的批评者-以及彭斯的一些助手-详细描述了他在2021年1月6日的行动，称赞他抵制特朗普。
“在一个背叛人们就职誓言的可耻时代，犯罪随处可见，在那一天，忠于职守、遵守法律的人将成为英雄。我认为，在那一天，他是一个英雄，因为他抵制了所有的压力运动，以及让他继续玩这个‘大谎言’的强制努力，这个大笑话，他可以以某种方式取消所有的程序，”民主党众议员杰米·拉斯金(Jamie Raskin)是1月6日委员会的成员，他在周日的NBC《会见新闻界》(Meet the Press)上谈到彭斯。
“副总统彭斯明白，他的就职宣誓比他对特朗普总统的忠诚更重要。他尽了自己的职责。特朗普总统明确表示没有，”怀俄明州共和党众议员利兹·切尼(Liz Cheney)上周表示，她是1月6日委员会的副主席，也可以说是特朗普最大的共和党批评者。
然而，这种赞扬可能会激怒共和党中亲特朗普派的人-他们可能已经对彭斯持怀疑态度-同时，这位前副总统也没有淡化未来的政治抱负。
除此之外，他还去了几个提前举行总统初选的州，包括爱荷华州、新罕布什尔州和南卡罗来纳州。尽管调查显示，在2024年共和党初选中，他的民调支持率远远落后于特朗普，但彭斯表示，即使他的前老板也发起竞选，他仍可能参选。
“我们会去我们被叫去的地方，”彭斯告诉纽约时报在上个月发表的采访中。
Amid Jan. 6 hearings praising him, Pence talks past 'tragic' insurrection to tout time with Trump
At the same time that he is being hailed on Capitol Hill forupholding his constitutional dutyduring last year's Capitol attack -- and his aides are describing how he wasurged to help overturn the 2020 election-- former Vice President Mike Pence is focusing on other issues in public.
In remarks on Monday, Pence looked to move beyond the deadly rioting that briefly forced him into lockdown on Jan. 6, 2021, and tried to turn the page from the pressure campaign led by then-President Donald Trump seeking to have Pence reject the election results.
Pence's appearances, most recently at the University Club of Chicago on Monday, have served as a split-screen with the ongoing hearings held by the special House committee investigating the mob.
In Chicago and elsewhere, Pence has only briefly mentioned the insurrection, instead criticizing President Joe Biden's record and touting his time serving alongside former President Trump for four years.
"We've all been through a lot over the last several years," Pence said in his speech in Chicago. "A global pandemic, social unrest, a divisive election, a tragic day in our nation's capital -- and an administration seemingly every day driving our economy into the abyss of a socialist welfare state."
"Jan. 6 was a tragic day, and I know we did our duty. But I will always be proud of our record," Pence addedin an interviewwith Fox News. "And I am not going to allow the Democrats to use that tragic day to distract attention from their failed agenda or to demean the intentions of 74 million Americans who rallied behind our cause."
Pence has also repeatedly referred to the "Trump-Pence" administration in his remarks and said in an interview with Fox Business this week that he believed "there has never been a time in my life where a president was more disconnected from the American people" as Biden.
Those comments mark a departure from Pence's posture earlier this year, when he was forceful in his denials of Trump's repeated claims that he had the power to overturn the last presidential race.
"President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election," Pence said in a February speech. "The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And, frankly, there's no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person can choose the American president."
Meanwhile, with the House hearings, Democrats and other Trump detractors -- and some of Pence's aides -- have detailed his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, praising him for resisting Trump.
"In a time of absolutely scandalous betrayal of people's oaths of office and crimes being committed all over the place, somebody who does their job and sticks to the law will stand out as a hero on that day. And I think on that day he was a hero for resisting all of the pressure campaigns and the coercive efforts to get him to play along with this continuation of the 'big lie,' this big joke that he could somehow call off all the proceedings himself," Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who sits on the Jan. 6 committee, said of Pence on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.
"Vice President Pence understood that his oath of office was more important than his loyalty to President Trump. He did his duty. President Trump, unequivocally, did not," Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee and arguably the biggest Republican critic of Trump, said last week.
Such commendations, however, could irk those in the pro-Trump wing of the GOP -- who already may be skeptical of Pence -- at the same time that the former vice president has not downplayed future political aspirations.
Among other moves, he has traveled to several states that host early presidential primaries, including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. And while surveys have shown that he polls far behind Trump in a prospective 2024 GOP primary, Pence has indicated he could still run even if his former boss also launches a campaign.
"We'll go where we're called," Pencetold The New York Timesin an interview published last month
