Former Vice President Mike Pence’s 2024 campaign is hoping to capitalize on his presence in the latest federal indictment against former President Trump in the form of new merchandise.
Pence’s campaign is selling T-shirts and hats that read “Too honest,” a nod to a quote from the 45-page indictment against Trump over his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, which included pressuring his vice president to reject the results.
The indictment highlights a Jan. 1, 2021, call during which Trump berated Pence after learning he had opposed a lawsuit seeking a ruling on the vice president’s authority to reject electoral votes. When Pence said there was no constitutional basis for him to reject the votes, Trump replied, “You’re too honest.”
Pence recounted the same conversation in his memoir, released last year.
The Washington Examiner first reported on the new merchandise, which will be available later Thursday.
The former vice president, who is running against Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, has been outspoken in the days since the indictment was filed. He has reiterated he had no right to overturn the election and argued Trump’s efforts to put himself over the Constitution should disqualify him from serving another term in the White House.
“You know, I’m a student of American history. And the first time I heard in early December somebody suggest that as vice president I might be able to decide which votes to reject and which to accept, I knew that it was false. … I dismissed it out of hand,” Pence said Wednesday at the Indiana State Fair. “Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear.”
Pence is polling in the single digits in most surveys of GOP primary voters, and he is still shy of the donor requirement to make the first debate later this month. But his campaign expects he will meet the donor threshold in a matter of days.