Ex-US Vice Prez Pence says 'Georgia election was not stolen'

WASHINGTON: Former US President Donald Trump's 4th indictment by the Grand Jury of Fulton County has aroused the curiosity of a divided nation as former Vice President Mike Pence stoutly defended the Georgia election saying it was not stolen, and Trump is still forging ahead as the front-runner as Republican and public support grows amongst the belief that he is being politically persecuted.

Pence said: "No one is above law. And the president and all those implicated (18 of them including Rudy Giuliani) are entitled to the presumption of innocence."

Speaking in Indianapolis at the National Conference of State Legislatures, Mike Pence said Wednesday that the Georgia election was not stolen in 2020, virtually explaining his role on January 6, days after Trump's indictment for his attempts to overturn the election results in the state.

"The Georgia election was not stolen and I had no right to overturn the election on January 6," Pence said, making it his first remark since the indictment that justified his certification of the 2020 election results.

They also echoed the sentiments of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp this week thus setting up potential fault lines for the August 23 GOP debate in Milwaukee where presidential hopefuls of the GOP spar each other, media reports said.

"Over the last two and half years, President Trump has continued to tell the American people things that just aren't so," Pence told the news network Politico.

"I had no right to overturn the election. I welcome the opportunity to set the record straight. And I’ll continue to."

Despite Pence's assertion that the Georgia mandate was not stolen, the majority of Americans view the ex-president unfavourably, as Donald Trump appears to outrun his nearest rivals Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former VP Pence for the 2024 presidential race , both way behind the former President, multiple Gallup polls show.