Former President Donald Trump on Monday deflected blame for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol U.S. Capitol to his former vice president, Mike Pence.

“Had he sent the votes back to the [state] legislatures, they [Trump’s supporters] wouldn’t have had a problem with Jan. 6, so in many ways you can blame him for Jan. 6,” Trump, who is running for president again, told reporters aboard his plane on the way to a campaign stop in Iowa, according to The Washington Post. “Had he sent them back to Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, the states, I believe, No. 1, you would have had a different outcome. But I also believe you wouldn’t have had ‘Jan. 6’ as we call it.”

Trump’s comments were in response to Pence’s remarks Saturday, in which the former vice president said Trump’s "reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

Trump pressured Pence to reject results from certain states in which Trump and his allies claimed there was widespread election fraud despite more than 60 losses in court cases challenging the outcome and assertions from election and law-enforcement officials that there was no evidence to support the claims.

Pence, whose role in overseeing the certification of Electoral College votes was largely ceremonial, refused to go along with the plan, telling Congress in a letter that he did not have the authority to unilaterally determine which votes should and should not be counted.

Trump tweeted on Jan. 6 that the Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.” Soon after, people outside the Capitol were chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!”, video shows.

After Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, Pence was rushed to a loading dock under the Capitol for safety, and lawmakers also were rushed to secure locations.

While Pence has made similar remarks before, Trump suggested that low poll numbers might be motivating Pence to lash out. The former vice president has not announced a 2024 White House run but has been making appearances that suggest he’s strongly considering it.

“I guess he figured that being nice is not working,” Trump said. “But, you know, he’s out there campaigning. And he’s trying very hard. And he’s a nice man. I’ve known him. I had a very good relationship until the end.”

Trump argued Monday that legislation Congress passed last year to reform the Electoral Count Act was proof that Pence had the authority to block the certification of Biden’s victory.

“He had the right to send them back, otherwise they wouldn’t have changed the Voting Act,” Trump said. “They all said, ‘He didn’t have any rights at all, he was a human conveyor belt, he had no rights even if it was fraud.’ And then the day after he did it, they said, ‘Now we’re going to change it so he doesn’t do it.’ Meaning, you understand that, meaning he had the right to do it.”

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W.V., who were involved in bipartisan on the legislation, said in a statement it aimed to fix “the flaws of the archaic and ambiguous Electoral Count Act of 1887 and establishes clear guidelines for our system of certifying and counting electoral votes for President and Vice President.”

While Pence predicted history would hold Trump accountable for Jan. 6, the former vice president is reportedly fighting a federal grand jury subpoena to testify in the investigation into Trump’s actions leading up to the insurrection.