In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence said that he believes it is not a “foregone conclusion” that Democrats in the House of Representatives will vote to impeach President Donald Trump, reports The Hill .
Speaking with host Jeanine Pirro, Pence argued that it remains unclear whether the Democrats even have the votes to impeach Trump, suggesting that a lot could change in the coming weeks.
“I don’t yet know what’s going to happen in the House,” he said.
“I know that Speaker Pelosi has announced articles of impeachment, but I have to tell you, I served in the Congress for 12 years, and I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion that the Democrats will be able to get the votes to pass articles of impeachment,” the vice president asserted.
Pence added that he has heard “from people all over the country” that they are happy with the progress the administration has made and oppose impeachment.
He then went on to list a number of Trump administration’s accomplishments, arguing that the president has managed to revive the United States economy, rebuild the military, and appoint a record number of conservative judges to federal courts.
Pence also urged all Americans to read the transcript of Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, asserting that the commander-in-chief “did nothing wrong” during his contacts with the Ukrainian government.
According to House Democrats — whose claims are based on a complaint filed by an anonymous whistleblower, and on multiple witness testimonies, Trump pressured the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponents.
According to Democrats, Trump abused the power of his office to force Ukraine to launch probes into prominent Democratic politicians, such as Pence’s predecessor, former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump, Democrats claim, froze — and threatened to cut — military aid in order to force the Ukrainians to do as he says, thus committing multiple impeachable offenses.
“I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion,” says @Mike_Pence on the possibility of President Trump being formally impeached by the House. Check out my EXCLUSIVE interview: pic.twitter.com/77NsEJNJd1
— Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) December 8, 2019
Pence also discussed his conversations with Trump, telling Pirro that Ukraine came up during one such conversation. According to Pence, the president wanted to know what Zelensky is “doing about corruption,” and directed him to look into the situation.
Zelensky and Pence met in September, but they did not mention Biden, according to reports. However, former administration officials claim that the Ukrainian government could have interpreted Pence’s focus on corruption as “code” for launching investigations into the Bidens.
It is not only Pence that is implicated in the Ukraine case, other high-ranking administration officials are as well, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. According to State Department documents , Pompeo and Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani worked together to make sure the investigations are launched.