South Carolina’s Tom Rice was one of 10 House Republicans to vote in favor of ousting former President Donald Trump for inciting the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.
Now, as Rice fights a tough battle for his political life in the heart of Trump’s country, he maintains that election, calling it the “conservative vote” in an interview with ABC News Washington’s chief correspondent Jonathan Karl , which aired Sunday on “This Week.”
“I did it then. And I would do it again tomorrow,” Rice said.
Rice said Trump deserved to be fired for endangering former Vice President Mike Pence and his family at the Capitol and failing to act more quickly to stop the deadly riot as it unfolded last year.
“When he saw the looting of the Capitol, the ‘People’s House’, when he saw the Capitol police officers being beaten for three or four hours and he didn’t lift a thing or stop it, I was livid. then and I’m livid. today about it, “Rice recalled. “And it became very clear to me that I took an oath to protect the Constitution.”
Rep. Tom Rice speaks with Jon Karl.
ABC News
Trump has vowed revenge against Rice, endorsing one of his six main opponents and holding a rally in his district in March.
“Right here in District 7, Tom Rice, a disaster,” Trump said booing. “No one respects him, he laughed at Washington.”
A mild-mannered accountant and tax attorney who helped draft the 2017 Republican tax law that Trump signed into law, Rice says he voted overwhelmingly in favor of Trump’s agenda in Congress.
“If I’m a ‘disaster’ and a ‘total fool’ and I’ve voted for him 169 times out of 184, what does he do?” He said to Karl. “I was following his example.”
“He’s a narcissist and he’s driven by attention, and he’s driven by revenge,” Rice said of Trump.
He also warned his party not to focus on the former president if Trump seeks the Oval Office again, as Trump has often hinted.
“I think it will hurt us,” Rice said. “They will paint us more in the corner of extremism, they will try to call us extremists. And he will feed that. “
Rice criticized Republicans, including Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California, for quickly embracing Trump in the weeks following the Capitol attack.
He declined to say whether McCarthy should be a spokesman if Republicans regain the House in November.
“I’m not going to answer that right now,” he told ABC’s Karl. “We’ll see what happens.”
Rep. Tom Rice speaks with Jon Karl.
ABC News
Rice praised Wyo. Like Rice, Cheney provoked Trump’s anger by criticizing him and is struggling with his own main challenge.
“She would be a great speaker,” Rice said. “She is very conservative and I think she is a fearless leader.”
But before November, Rice is due to defend his seat in Congress on June 14, when he will face six more candidates, including Trump-backed state representative Russell Fry, for the Republican nomination.
The crowded camp makes it unlikely that any of the candidates will win more than 50% of the vote and avoid a second round later this month between the top two, Jerry Rovner, party chairman, told ABC News Republican in Rice District.
Rovner, who is officially neutral in the primary but critical of Rice’s stance on impeachment, said Rice’s vote could be a “major issue for many voters” given Trump’s popularity in the area.
“I could vote 800 times like them [want him to] voting, but the only thing he voted for was making the press very upset, “Rovner said of Rice.” And that’s really what’s shrinking. “
Rice’s balancing act was fully demonstrated at a recent forum in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where some voters who had previously supported him marched when he defended his impeachment vote.
“He’s a traitor, and I just don’t trust him,” Lyne Vail told ABC News. “If you can’t support your party, he won’t support you or me.”
Billy Zevgolis, a Myrtle Beach businessman and undecided voter, said he also disagreed with Rice’s removal vote.
“Right now, Trump is our type,” he told ABC News. “I do not like his personality, but his policy is fair in money. Their values are in line with mine. “
Rice hopes to be able to persuade enough voters to ignore his position on Trump’s impeachment even if they disagree. It could also benefit from the state’s open primaries, which allow Democrats and independents to vote in the Republican race.
Even if he loses, Rice doesn’t regret it “absolutely,” he said.
“You know, like your obituary, the first sentence is ‘Tom Rice, who was a Republican in Congress, voted to oust Donald Trump,'” Karl told him.
“So be it,” he said. “I’ll wear it like a badge. So be it.”