Status: 06/17/2022 04:39 a.m
On the third day of the hearings on the storming of the US Capitol, it became clear how much ex-President Trump was pressuring Vice Pence to reject Biden’s election. Although at times even his life was in danger, Pence disagreed and thus saved US democracy.
“Bring him out!!” “Hang Mike Pence!” rioters chanted in the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Donald Trump had drummed into them that Pence, the Vice President, had the right and the duty to reject the results of the election. And when Pence didn’t, they wanted to hold him accountable. Pence had to be taken to a safe place, only a few meters separated him from the overthrowers, that became clear yesterday.
How Donald Trump put pressure on his Vice President and incited the public against him was the focus of the third day of the hearings.
Pence should stop certification of choice
“Donald Trump wanted Mike Pence to do something no Vice President had ever done. He should reject the votes and either declare Trump the winner or send the votes back to the states to be recounted,” said Bernie Thompson, the chairman of the special committee that wants to clarify the events of January 6th.
On that day, a session of Congress was to receive and certify the votes of state electors. A mere ceremony presided over by the Vice President, it had always been that way. But Donald Trump demanded that Pence stop the certification, after all, the election was not done properly.
“A revolution within a constitutional crisis”
Mike Pence and his advisors came to a different conclusion. There was no reasonable basis for concluding that the vice president had that authority, summarized Greg Jacob, then an advisor to Mike Pence. And Michael J. Luttig, a conservative judge, went even further: “Declaring Donald Trump as the next president would have, in my opinion, plunged America into a revolution within a constitutional crisis”.
Trump saw it differently, that became clear in the hearing. He listened to the one voice that said otherwise, the lawyer John Eastman. Eastman kept writing memos urging Pence to make Trump president, backed by the former president, who pressured Pence in speeches and tweets – and, witnesses said, vehemently abused Pence in a phone call.
Pence didn’t want to leave the Capitol
And when Pence still refused, Trump set the mob on him, the mob that yelled “Hang Mike Pence” and set up a gallows in front of the Capitol, according to Bernie Thompson, the committee chair.
Security forces tried to take the Pence out of the Capitol but he refused, a witness said, noting that the vice president didn’t want to appear as if he was fleeing. Instead, hours later, he brought the suspended session to an end – and made Joe Biden president.