Pence mocked after bragging that US did not enter new war under Trump

The vice president did not mention the Capitol riot

Vice President Mike Pence tried to sing the praises of Donald Trump on Sunday, boasting that the president was the first in decades to keep the US from engaging in a war.  

"I'm proud to report with just a few days left in our administration, our administration is the first in decades that did not get America into a new war," Mr Pence said during a speech at Fort Drum. "That's Peace through Strength."  

Mr Pence made the comment less than two weeks after Mr Trump's supporters attacked the US Capitol while calling for him to be hanged.  

Critics were quick to paint Mr Pence's sentiment as hollow, pointing out to the massive death toll under Mr Trump's leadership.  

"Does someone else want to tell him? Or should I?" author Rochelle Riley replied on Twitter. "We've been at war for 11 days. And he and Donald Trump cannot leave soon enough."

Others pointed out that more Americans died under Mr Trump's leadership than in almost any American war as a result of the coronavirus.  

"Instead we killed nearly 400,000 Americans," Rabia O'Chaudry, an attorney, author and host of the podcast Undisclosed, said.

Even without considering the coronavirus, it's hard to argue Mr Trump's time in office was an era of peace.  

The president used federal troops to beat down racial justice protesters over the summer, ramped up the role of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents in his war against illegal immigration and he assassinated Iranian general Qassim Soleimani, which risked starting a war with Iran.  

One of Mr Trump's first actions as president was to launch a botched military operation in Yemen that left one US Navy SEAL dead, three wounded, and that caused the destruction of a V-22 Osprey.  

Mr Trump escalated Barack Obama's drone warfare programme, and made it even less accountable than it was under his Democratic predecessor. The president loosened the rules of engagement on troops in Afghanistan in 2017, and since then civilian casualties have increased 95 per cent.  

The president also pardoned the four Blackwater war criminals who massacred Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007, and has advocated for war crimes himself on at least three occasions.  

Mr Trump bragged that he had defeated ISIS after enacting his policy to "bomb the s*** out of" them, and famously stated "when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families."  

The president also backed coup attempts in Bolivia and Venezuela.