Former Second Lady Karen Pence — whose husband, former Vice President Mike Pence, was the target of violent threats from the January 6 Capitol Insurrection mob — is getting attention today for refusing to stand up and shake Donald Trump’s hand at the late President Jimmy Carter’s funeral.

In the video being shared on social media, Donald and Melania Trump are shaking hands with former Vice Presidents Al Gore and Pence at the funeral at the Washington National Cathedral. Next in line to shake the Trumps’ hands is Karen Pence, but she doesn’t even put down a paper she’s reading, let alone stand up to greet the Trumps.

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It is, of course, not known why Karen Pence gave the Trumps such a cold response, but many are speculating that it has something to do with how Donald Trump inspired the January 6 mob to storm the Capitol while Mike Pence was presiding over the Senate as it ceremoniously certified each state’s votes in the 2020 elections.

Donald Trump lied and said that he lost that election due to massive voter fraud, and he wanted Mike Pence to stop the certification of the election results so that he could remain president despite President Joe Biden getting more votes. After his “Save America” rally on January 6, 2021 — where Donald Trump made numerous false claims about the election and told the crowd to “fight like hell” — Trump supporters marched to the Capitol, broke past police perimeters, and looted and vandalized the building. Many rioters were carrying weapons. Some constructed a makeshift gallows and noose outside the Capitol, and chanted “Where is Pence?”, “Find Mike Pence” and “Hang Mike Pence.”

Five people died as a result of that day’s events and many were injured, including 174 police officers.

In the years since the January 6 riots, Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed his loss on Mike Pence, reportedly bitter over what he perceived as Mike Pence’s “betrayal.” When asked later in 2021 about the chants of “Hang Mike Pence,” Donald Trump said it was “common sense” for people to want to kill his vice president.

“People were very angry because it’s common sense,” Trump said at the time. “It’s common sense that you’re supposed to protect. How can you— if you know a vote is fraudulent, right? How can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress?”

In early 2024, Mike Pence told Fox News that he wouldn’t support Donald Trump in the election. Karen Pence told CBS that nobody “who puts himself above the Constitution should ever be president of the United States” when asked about Donald Trump’s campaign.

Both Karen and Mike Pence have a long history of anti-LGBTQ+ actions. Mike Pence voted against LGBTQ+ rights repeatedly in Congress, campaigned on diverting funds from HIV/AIDS to conversion therapy, and was a chief architect of the transgender military ban in Donald Trump’s first term.

Karen Pence worked at a school that banned LGBTQ+ students because “homosexual or lesbian sexual activity” and “transgender identity” were listed in the school’s applications as forms of “moral misconduct,” along with pedophilia and sexual harassment.

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