Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks in Phoenix, Arizona on June 13.Matt York / The Associated Press
Mike Pence will not testify at the committee hearing on Thursday, January 6th. But it will be in the spotlight as attention is focused on former President Donald Trump’s desperate and futile attempts to persuade his vice president to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and hand them a second term.
“As you can hear, President Trump has put in a relentless effort to put pressure on Pence, both in private and in public,” said Liz Cheney, the committee’s lead Republican. “Vice President Pence has consistently demonstrated his loyalty to Donald Trump for four years, but he knew he had a higher duty to the United States Constitution.”
What we know about Pence’s actions before and during this day:
Under pressure
When Trump’s frantic efforts to prevent defeat were thwarted by the courts and state officials, he and his allies rallied on Jan. 6, the day a joint session of Congress would meet to formalize the victory. President-elect Joe Biden, as his last chance to stay in power.
The campaign of hard-handed pressure intensified in the days leading up to the 6th when Trump, lawyer John Eastman and others in Trump’s orbit tried to convince Pence that he had the power to revoke the will of voters in a handful of critical battle states simply. reject the votes of the Electoral College or send the results to the states, although the Constitution makes it clear that the role of the vice president in the proceedings is largely ceremonial.
Pence spent hours meeting with staff, including his attorney general, Greg Jacob. He studied the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which regulates procedures, and met with the Senate MP to understand his role. He also received outside advice, including former Vice President Dan Quayle.
Some aides have called on Trump not to put his inflexibly loyal vice president in such a precarious position. Pence was already widely seen as a potential future presidential candidate, and a public crackdown with Trump was seen as a potential end-of-career potential. But Trump continued to push, both publicly and behind the scenes.
On Monday, January 4, Eastman and Trump pressured Pence to go with the plan at an Oval Office meeting. And at a rally that night in Georgia, Trump said his fate was in the hands of his vice president. “I hope Mike Pence comes for us,” he told the crowd.
Trump continued to press for an oval office meeting the next day, where he again urged Pence to use powers that the vice president did not have to override voter will. Pence then made it clear that he was not convinced.
That day, Jacob sent a note in which he put in writing his conclusion that if Pence followed Eastman’s proposal, he would probably lose in court, at best, or trigger a constitutional crisis, Politico reported for the first time. Tensions were so high that Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, called Pence’s chief intelligence officer that day, The New York Times reported for the first time. Vice President to follow with Trump was about to go public. .
‘Mike Pence Penja’
The pressure continued throughout the night. “If Vice President Mike-Pence comes out for us, we will win the presidency,” Trump tweeted around 1 p.m.
“All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the United States, AND WE WIN,” he wrote later that morning. “Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”
Pence was at his residence at the Naval Observatory on the morning of January 6 when he last spoke with Trump, who was joined in the Oval Office by his daughter Ivanka and Pence’s national security adviser. , Keith Kellogg. During the 11 a.m. call, Trump rebuked Pence, punishing him for not being tough enough to go ahead with the plan, according to Kellogg’s testimony on the committee.
Pence then headed to the Capitol to oversee the counting of Electoral College votes that would formalize Trump’s defeat.
But first Pence made official what his aides had already made clear. In a letter to colleagues in Congress, Pence explained why he could not follow Trump’s plan.
“It is my view that my oath to support and defend the Constitution limits me to claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” he wrote.
At 1:03 p.m., he officially gave the session to the U.S. Senate while pro-Trump rioters, who had already broken through the Capitol barricades, were clashing outside with police.
At the time, Trump was about to end his speech at the Ellipse in which he repeatedly aimed at Pence and urged his followers to “fight like hell.”
“If Mike Pence does the right thing, we’ll win the election,” Trump falsely told the crowd. “All Vice President Pence has to do is send him to the states to re-certify him and we will become president and you are the happiest people.”
Outside the Capitol, the scene turned into violent chaos when rioters, some armed with pipes, bats and bear spray, charged at the Capitol and quickly overwhelmed the police. An officer was repeatedly beaten and beaten with a stun gun until he had a heart attack. Another was foaming at the mouth and shouting for help as the mutineers crushed him between two doors and hit him in the head with his own weapon. At 1:49 p.m., DC police officially declared a riot.
At around 2:12 p.m., Pence was rushed from the Senate floor as riots flooded inside. The Washington Post reported for the first time that Pence, who had been joined that day by his wife and daughter, was at a time less than 100 feet from a group of protesters.
In hiding
Pence spent the next few hours hiding with his staff and family, first in his ceremonial office and then in an underground loading dock inside the Capitol complex. At least twice, he rejected requests from security personnel to leave the building, insisting that it was crucial that he stay in place.
But even though the horror was played live on television, Trump, instead of urging his followers to return home, criticized Pence.
“Mike Pence did not have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution, giving states the opportunity to certify a set of corrected facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones that are He asked them to certify in advance, and Trump tweeted at 2:24 p.m. Trump’s tweet echoed through the angry mob. Images taken by the committee show the rioters reading Trump’s words aloud and the people chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” An improvised gallows was photographed outside.
The committee alleges that Trump was aware of the chants and “responded with that feeling, ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence” deserves it, “Cheney accused.
‘Let’s get back to work’
At 8 p.m., after hours of fear and carnage, the Capitol was finally considered safe and Pence reconvened the Senate with a message.
“Today was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol. But thanks to the rapid efforts of U.S. Capitol police, federal, state and local law enforcement, the violence was stifled. The Capitol is “And let’s get back to work,” he told the nation.
Shortly after 3:40 a.m., Pence officially declared Trump’s electoral defeat, as well as his own.
In a video testimony released on Monday, Donald Trump’s former attorney general William Barr dismissed allegations of election fraud without a wheel, saying at a meeting on December 14, 2020: “I was a little demoralized because I thought, boy, if he really thinks he has these things … he has broken away from reality.
Reuters
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, which give you a concise summary of the most important headlines of the day. Sign up today.