Mike Pence was met with a chorus of boos Friday upon taking the stage at a National Rifle Association convention in his home state.
“Hello, NRA!” the former vice president said at the gun rights event in Indianapolis. His appearance was met with loud objections from the audience.
“I love you, too,” Pence deadpanned in response.
The vocal disapproval came a week after Pence agreed to stop challenging a subpoena for him to testify in an investigation of former President Donald Trump’s actions before and during the insurrection in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump previously suggested that Pence could have thwarted the peaceful transfer of power that day, when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to halt the electoral certification of now-President Joe Biden. After Pence refused to do so, Trump supporters issued calls for violence against him.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told colleagues that Trump had expressed approval of rioters’ demands to hang the vice president. Pence has said that Trump later asked him if he was scared that day.
Friday’s boos were at the very least a marked improvement from this prior reception. Elsewhere in his convention speech, Pence criticized gun control opponents and called for the execution of mass shooters.
“The time has come to institute a federal death penalty statute, with accelerated appeal, to ensure that those who engage in mass shootings face execution in months, not years,” Pence said, prompting hearty cheers from the NRA crowd.
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