. WATCH: Mike Pence Tells Jake Tapper About That Time He Tried To Get Trump To ‘Turn To Jesus’ - News Times

WATCH: Mike Pence Tells Jake Tapper About That Time He Tried To Get Trump To ‘Turn To Jesus’

By News Here - 11:07

Former Vice President Mike Pence told CNN’s Jake Tapper about the time he tried to get former President Donald Trump to “turn to Jesus.”

Pence was given an hour-long “Town Hall” event on CNN to mark the occasion of the publication of his book, during which audience members asked questions with Tapper as the moderator.

January 6 and its aftermath were frequent topics, including an exchange in which Tapper asked Pence if he’s still angry that Trump endangered not only the VP, but his wife and children as well.

Pence responded at length that he had forgiven Trump. Tapper pushed back, and that’s when Pence explained his attempt to move Trump to Jesus and how it worked out:

TAPPER: So, I come from a different faith tradition that also believes in forgiveness, but it also believes in people seeking forgiveness when they have done wrong to someone.

PENCE: Well, Jake, I don’t know what was happening at the White House. I was at a loading dock at the U.S. Capitol building working the problem and doing my level best to help facilitate the arrival of security personnel to quell the violence. But what I can tell you is, in the five days following January 6, I — I made no effort to contact the president. He had said the things publicly that I believe needed to be said, committing to a peaceful transfer of power, condemning the violence that had taken place.

But when his daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law came to my office, as I write in “So Help Me God,” and asked on that following Monday if I’d be willing to sit down with the president, I — I told them I wasn’t looking for a meeting, but if he had something to say to me, I’d hear him out.

And I walked down to the Oval Office, that you’ve been to many times, into that back hallway, in the small dining room, where the president and I had spent so many productive hours working through issues at home and abroad, the progress that we had made — we’re a stronger, more prosperous country — a lot of it had happened over that small dining room table.

But I walked into the room, and the president’s chief of staff was present, but he quickly left. The president looked up at me and he asked if Karen and Charlotte were OK. And I said tersely, “They’re fine, Mr. President.” And he said, “Were you scared?”

And I said, “No,” I was angry. I was angry about the differences we had, and I was — I told him seeing those people ransacking the Capitol infuriated me.

But we sat for more than an hour and a half, and I was candid with the president about my disappointment. And I must tell you that I sensed the president was deeply remorseful in that moment. And I know that’s at odds with people’s public perception about him. But I want to tell you it was true. I could tell he was saddened by what had happened. And we spoke through it that day.

And I encouraged him to pray. He told me many times that he was a believer, and I told him, “Well, turn to Jesus,” hoping that he would find the comfort there that I was finding in that moment.

In the days that followed, I made my way back in that office for another meeting. And the president, days later, was still what I would call downcast. His voice was fainter than I ever remember at any time in our four and a half years together. And after we finished talking through some end of the administration business, I — I reminded him that I was praying for him. And he was dismissive about it.

Pence went on to claim he is convinced Trump was something akin to remorseful, at least for a moment they shared in the Oval Office.

Watch above via CNN.

The post WATCH: Mike Pence Tells Jake Tapper About That Time He Tried To Get Trump To ‘Turn To Jesus’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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