Pence drops from Fox News Sean Hannity lineup after breaking news of Trump's indictment overtakes the airwaves
- Pence tweeted on Thursday evening that he would be appearing on Sean Hannity's program.
- Then, the news of Trump's indictment hit, and Pence didn't appear on the program.
Former Vice President Mike Pence didn't make a scheduled appearance with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Thursday, shortly after the US Department of Justice indicted former President Donald Trump.
As of Thursday evening, Pence had not yet released a statement about the indictment, which centers on classified documents Trump held at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, from his time as president. Pence almost certainly would've been asked about the charges in the Hannity interview, as the producers ended up devoting the entirety of the show to interviewing conservative legal experts and political observers about the indictment.
Devin O'Malley, a spokesman for the campaign, told Insider that the original purpose of the interview had been to discuss Pence's 2024 presidential-campaign announcement, but then the show ended up focusing on the breaking news about the indictment. The interview would be rescheduled, he said.
The indictment news broke 1 ½ hours before Hannity's program began. Pence had previewed the Fox News appearance in the afternoon through a Twitter post that was later deleted.
Pence entered the 2024 presidential nomination for a long-shot bid on Wednesday, when he sharply rebuked his former boss for pressuring him to try to overturn the 2020 election results after Biden won the presidency. Trump, Pence said, "should never be president of the United States again."
It's unclear what stance Pence will take on the case. Pence, too, had classified documents at his home in Carmel, Indiana, but turned them over to federal authorities. He searched his home after it was discovered that President Joe Biden also had classified documents in his garage in Wilmington, Delaware, and in a Washington, DC, office, from his time as vice president.
Federal prosecutors are charging Trump with seven criminal counts, according to numerous reports. Among them are obstruction of justice and false statements. Such charges could carry decades of prison time.
The public first became aware of the documents investigation in August 2022, when the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. They seized several boxes of documents Trump took from the White House, some of which were marked "top secret."
Trump said on Truth Social, his social-media platform, that he would report to a federal court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon. At that time, he or his lawyers are expected to enter a plea of "not guilty."