Pence breaks silence about Trump, Jan. 6 in interview tonight – National & International News – MON 14Nov2022

Pence to break silence about Trump, Jan. 6 in interview tonight. Fake “Free insulin” tweet hits Big Pharma stock price.

NATIONAL NEWS

Pence to open up about Jan. 6 in interview tonight

Throughout the months of Jan. 6 hearings on Capitol Hill, there is one central figure the committee has long wanted to hear from. Until now, former VP Mike Pence has been largely silent about the events of Jan. 6 and the months of build-up to them. Tonight at 10pm ET/9 pm CT, he will be sitting down with ABC’s David Muir for a full interview. The sit-down comes ahead of a release of Pence’s book So Help Me God, due out tomorrow.

ABC has already released a teaser clip for the interview (click here to view the 1.5-minute clip) in which the normally stone-faced Pence appears shaken when recalling the events at the Capitol. In the clip, Muir asks Pence what his reaction was to a tweet from Trump as the violence was already unfolding. Trump’s tweet declared that, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution”. After a loaded pause, Pence replies, “It angered me. But I turned to my daughter who was standing nearby, and I said, ‘It doesn’t take courage to break the law, it takes courage to uphold the law.’”

Pence describes the President’s tweet as “reckless” and that, “It’s clear he decided to be part of the problem”. Muir pointed out while Pence was on the phone to the Pentagon and the DC police seeking reinforcements, Trump was sitting in his White House dining room watching the events on TV. When Muir asks why Trump wasn’t making those calls himself, Pence answers, “That would be a good question for him”.

Pence book, possible 2024 run

Pence’s book will hit shelves tomorrow, the same day Trump has promised a “big announcement”. Most expect Trump will be formally announcing another run for the White House in 2024. Pence has been contemplating a 2024 run himself and has recently visited several early primary states.

Excerpts from an advance copy of the book reveal how an almost joking suggestion from Trump that Pence refuse to certify the results of the Nov. 2020 election evolved over the following weeks to an outright demand from Trump that he do so. Witnesses speaking to the Jan. 6 committee have described the weeks-long pressure campaign against Pence. So far, Pence himself has not appeared before the committee to give testimony. 

Click here for more snippets from Pence’s book So Help Me God (opens in new tab).

Fake “Free insulin” tweet hits BigPharma stock price

For a few days last week, Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk made it possible to purchase a verified account for $8 a month. These accounts come with a blue check mark after your Twitter handle. Previously, the blue checks were reserved for public figures and official brand or corporate accounts and signified that the account belonged to the person or entity it claimed to.

With Musk’s “Twitter Blue” subscription service seeking to level the playing field, these verification expectations went out the window. That meant that anyone with $8 and a dream could, on Twitter at least, be anyone they wanted. People bought blue check accounts purporting to belong to basketball great LeBron James, former Presidents George W. Bush or Donald Trump. Users also impersonated government agencies and even major corporations like defense contractors and pharmaceutical companies. As a result, Twitter has now shut down “Twitter Blue” until they figure out a way to make trolls stop trolling.

Eli Lilly vs. the Internet

Last Thursday, an account purporting to belong to pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly tweeted, “We are excited to announce insulin is free now”. This understandably generated a great deal of excitement, as Americans without insurance sometimes have to pay as much as $1000/month for the life saving drug (which costs about $30/month in Canada). Eli Lilly’s actual official Twitter account @LillyPad then tried to clear the air, tweeting “We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account”.

Following this apology, Twitter users were quick to bash Eli Lilly for decades of price gouging insulin users. Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders stated, “Let’s be clear. Eli Lilly should apologize for increasing the price of insulin by over 1,200% since 1996 to $275 while it costs less than $10 to manufacture. The inventors of insulin sold their patents in 1923 for $1 to save lives, not to make Eli Lilly’s CEO obscenely rich”.

Whether it was in response to the false “free insulin” alarm or the backlash from Eli Lilly’s clarification, the company’s stock price tumbled 4.37% the next day.

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).

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