On Jan. 6, 2021, former Vice President Mike Pence found himself at the center of a constitutional firestorm on what became one of the most harrowing days of political violence in the country's history.

His president — and, he says, a friend with whom he’d “never had a cross word” until that day — wanted him to ignore more than two centuries of precedent and the peaceful transfer of power by sending some certified electors’ votes back to the states instead of presiding over their counting.

Outside the U.S. Capitol, President Donald Trump’s supporters called for Mr. Pence’s hanging.

“I believe by God’s grace I did my duty that day,” Mr. Pence said Thursday during a panel on faith, civility, and public service at Duquesne University.

The former vice president said his decision to defy the

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