Tom Rice, a Republican Representative from South Carolina, recently blasted former President Donald Trump, saying he would voted to impeach again as he did before if he had the chance, and claimed that he was still “livid” over Trump’s failure to stop the Insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.
Strangely, in the same conversation with ABC’s “This Week,” Rice said if Trump were to apologize for his role in the insurrection, he would likely still vote for him again.
Rice said:
“When he watched the Capitol, the ‘People’s House,’ being sacked, when he watched the Capitol Police officers being beaten for three or four hours and lifted not one thing or to stop it – I was livid. And it was very clear to me I took an oath to protect the Constitution.”
When asked about his vote to impeach Trump after the events of January 6, Rice said “I did it then. And I would do it again tomorrow, and added “Defending the constitution is a bedrock of the Republican platform. Defend the constitution, and that’s what I did.”
Rice has been a vocal critic of President Trump and his Republican allies since January 6, and was censured by South Carolina Republicans for his impeachment vote. He is now facing a crowded field of primary challengers, including the Trump-enodrsed Rep. Russell Fry.
Trump has called Rice a “a total fool,” and said that he has “abandoned his constituents by caving to Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left,” to which Rice pushed back, saying “If I am a disaster and a total fool, and I voted with him 169 or however many times, what does that make him, right? I’m taking his lead.”
Then Rice said under the right conditions, he’d still vote for and support Trump in the future:
“If he came out and said, ‘I’m sorry I made a huge mistake on January 6th. then I might consider it. He’s a narcissist, and he’s driven by attention, and he’s driven by revenge.”
January 2021, Rice was censured by the South Carolina Republican Party for impeaching the president.
While Rice was also one of the 126 House Republicans to back Texas v. Pennsylvania, a suit in line with Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud and that challenged the results of the 2020 election. He has since expressed regret over backing the suit, saying “In retrospect I should have voted to certify. Because President Trump was responsible for the attack on the Capitol.”
He concluded:
“In the wee hours of that disgraceful night, while waiting for the Capitol of our great country to be secured, I knew I should vote to certify. But because I had made a public announcement of my intent to object, I did not want to go back on my word. So yeah, I regret my vote to object.”
