Kristi Noem Refuses to Say Whether She Would Have Certified the Election on Jan. 6

Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, a potential vice-presidential pick for former President Donald J. Trump, refused to say on Sunday whether she would have certified the 2020 election if she had been in Vice President Mike Pence’s position. She also dodged questions about whether she supported exceptions to abortion bans for rape and incest.

“You can go back and keep talking about Jan. 6, but the fact of the matter is that was a day we hope we never see again here in this country,” Ms. Noem said on CNN. “We did not do justice by our country by showing and fighting over that day. We should focus on our freedoms and continue to uphold our Constitution. So talking in hypotheticals is not something that I do.”

When the interviewer, Dana Bash, pressed her on whether Mr. Pence had been wrong to certify the election results, Ms. Noem again avoided a direct answer, instead criticizing Mr. Pence for denouncing Mr. Trump after Jan. 6.

“I wasn’t in Mike Pence’s shoes, and the information that he had at that time — I don’t know how he based his decisions,” she said. “I think he’s a nice man. I think that he’s failed Donald Trump since that day, because he certainly does not recognize that we need someone in the White House who needs him out on the trail advocating for him, instead of constantly criticizing and going back and ripping him apart.”

On abortion, Ms. Noem, who supported a federal ban when she was a member of Congress, said she now believed restrictions should be left to individual states. That is the position Mr. Trump took this month, though his allies have developed plans that could functionally ban abortion nationwide without formally doing so.

Mr. Trump has also expressed support for rape and incest exceptions, which South