Mike Pence tells a woman impersonating a Capitol rioter 'I love your heart' in hidden camera recording

• A Democratic operative impersonating a Capitol rioter asked Pence why he didn't stop the election from being "stolen."
• "Uh, read the Constitution," replied Pence, explaining that states had already certified the results.
• "I love your heart, thank you," Pence told the woman as he walked away.

At a Sunday event in Nebraska City, former Vice President Mike Pence appears to have told a woman impersonating a Capitol rioter "I love your heart," according to a hidden camera recording.

"We were there on January 6th, and we were just wondering why you didn't stop the election from being stolen?" asks Lauren Windsor, a Democratic operative who recently began going undercover to secretly record Republican politicians.

"Uh, read the Constitution," replies Pence. "The only authority the Congress has is to open and count. The electoral college votes are certified by the states. We never want Washington, DC to run our elections."

"States run the elections, and no state had submitted more than one set of electors," Pence continued. "So, our only job was to open and count. But read the Constitution and see."

Windsor then pressed Pence over whether he believed the election was stolen. "We were there fighting for President Trump," Windsor said.

"I think there were a lot of irregularities that are now being fixed at state levels," said Pence, likely referring to a slew of new voting laws that have been passed in Republican states. "But states - you never want Washington, DC to run elections," Pence continued.

"I love your heart, thank you," Pence said as he walked away.

Pence made the remarks at the Nebraska Steak Fry, an event held by Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts that was attended by several GOP leaders.

Pence has faced blistering criticism from the right after he declined to intervene in the certification of electoral votes on January 6th. Even after the mob breached the Capitol, former President Trump tweeted that Pence "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution."

Earlier that day, Pence released a statement where he expressed sympathy for those alleging the election was illegitimate, but said "my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not."

Meanwhile, some of the rioters storming the Capitol that day said that they planned to hang Pence from a tree outside the Capitol.

The video of Pence was filmed by Windsor, a partner at the Democratic media organization Democracy Partners, as part of a new project by her web show, The Undercurrent, that uses undercover tactics to "expose" Republican politicians for embarrassing remarks.

In July, The Undercurrent taped GOP Virginia Gov. candidate Glenn Youngkin praising the ideas of defunding Planned Parenthood and enacting a "heartbeat bill" like what recently passed in Texas as "on the right track." Recently, she covertly filmed Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin saying "there's nothing obviously skewed" about the 2020 presidential election results in his state, despite some GOP claims to the contrary.

Asked about her group's connection to the Democratic Party, Windsor told Insider that the group has "not received funding from the DNC itself," and that the group is "a small organization, and I'll leave it at that."