Capitol police officer says Pence is ‘trying to save his ass’ after the ex-VP said he couldn’t have overturned the 2020 election results

• A Capitol Police officer tweeted on Saturday that former Vice President Mike Pence was only trying to “save his ass.” 
• Pence on Friday broke with former President Donald Trump, telling supporters he couldn’t have overturned the 2020 election results. 
• Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn in a tweet said: “It’s not heroic or a shift in moral compass.” 

US Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn on Saturday excoriated Mike Pence in a tweet, saying the former VP was trying to “save his ass” in recent comments that represented a rare break with former President Donald Trump.

As Insider previously reported, Pence in a speech Friday told supporters Trump was “wrong” in saying he could’ve overturned Biden’s win if he had wanted.

“This week, our former president said I had the right to ‘overturn the election.’ President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence said in what marked a rare public rebuke of the former president.

“The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone,” Pence added during his remarks, which were delivered to the Federalist Society. “And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”

—Harry A Dunn 🖤 (@libradunn) February 5, 2022

Dunn, who worked as an officer at the Capitol during the January 6, 2021, riot criticized Pence’s remarks in a tweet Saturday. 

“Pence suggested we need to move on from J6 months ago,” Dunn wrote. “It’s not heroic or a shift in moral compass with his latest statements. He’s simply trying to save his ass. Only now is he saying this, after two members of his staff testified and the archives are releasing his documents.” 

The House select committee investigating the January 6 riot, which was led by Trump supporters who believed the lie that the former president had won the 2020 election, has narrowed in on the former vice president. The panel recently interviewed his ex-aides, including his former chief of staff Marc Short and his former national security advisor Keith Kellogg.

“Everybody obviously wants to hear from Vice President Pence about his experience, but the former vice president of the United States is not the first person you call in as a witness. We have tried to fill in as much detail as possible before getting to a lot of the major witnesses,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, told The Hill.

Prior to his comments on Friday, Pence, who was inside the Capitol during the riot to oversee the certification of Biden’s win, had appeared to attempt to downplay its significance.

“I’m not going to allow the Democrats or the national media to use one tragic day in January to demean the intentions of 74 million people who stood with us in our cause,” Pence said late last year. “And I’m not going to allow the Democrats to use one tragic day in January to distract attention from their failed agenda and the failed policies of the Biden administration. We’re going to focus on the future.”

Dunn has been outspoken about the January 6 riot in the year since, as Insider previously reported, including his being called a racial slur by rioters.

More than 760 people have been charged due to their involvement in the riot, according to Insider’s database.