The United States was on the brink of revolution when the Capitol was stormed. So judged an expert in the investigative committee of the congress. The fact that this did not happen is mainly due to one man: ex-Vice President Mike Pence.
In the dramatic hours of the storming of the Capitol in Washington, Vice President Mike Pence showed great resilience. That became clear on Thursday (local time) in the Congressional Public Inquiry Committee into the events of January 6, 2021. Greg Jacob, a former aide to the vice president, testified that despite the violence outside and inside the Congress building, Pence refused to flee.
“There was no way the vice president wanted to risk the world seeing the vice president of the United States flee the US Capitol,” said Jacob, who accompanied Pence at the time. His boss was determined to complete the certification of the presidential election results. He saw it as a “constitutional duty” to bring this to an end. Pence therefore stayed in a safe place on the Capitol grounds for hours and later returned to the Senate room from there.
Pence possibly prevented the national crisis
With his steadfastness and sense of duty, Pence may have prevented a deep national crisis. Former US President Donald Trump’s plan to stay in power despite his 2020 election defeat would have plunged the country into a “constitutional crisis,” according to a former federal judge. Retired Judge J. Michael Luttig testified before the investigative committee into Trump’s attempts to get his then-deputy Pence to block certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.
If Pence had caved in to pressure from Trump and declared the election invalid, Luttig said it would have plunged the country into a “revolution within a crippling constitutional crisis in America.” In his words, it would have been “the first constitutional crisis since the founding of this republic”.
Donald Trump: All levers set in motion
After his defeat in the November 3, 2020 presidential election, Trump pulled out all the stops to stay in power. After dozens of lawsuits against the outcome of the election failed in court, he demanded that Vice President Pence prevent Biden’s victory from being certified at a crucial congressional session on January 6, 2021. Several witnesses, including Trump’s daughter Ivanka, described, among other things, a heated phone call between Trump and Pence on the morning of January 6th. The then President used several swear words. Trump called Pence a “sissy” under one.
The controversial lawyer John Eastman had submitted a memo to Trump, according to which Pence, in his role as Senate President at the Congress session, could have rejected the electoral votes of individual states due to allegations of fraud. Ex-Judge Luttig advised Pence at the time and rejected this representation. The vice president eventually declined to torpedo the certification of Biden’s election victory.
Judge Luttig: Trump’s plan was to ‘steal America’s democracy’
“Donald Trump wanted Mike Pence to do something no Vice President has ever done: The former President wanted Pence to reject the votes and either declare Trump the winner or send them back to the states to be counted again.” , said committee chair Bennie Thompson. However, Pence resisted the pressure. The then vice president was aware that the action requested by Trump would have been “illegal,” Thompson said.
Retired Judge Luttig also emphasized, “There was no basis in the Constitution or in the laws of the United States for Mr. Eastman’s theory. None.” Trump and his allies knew full well that he had lost the presidential election, the lawyer continued in a written statement. Nevertheless, they claimed that he had won the election and tried to overturn the outcome. The “treacherous plan” was to “steal America’s democracy.”
“Nonsense theory”: Vice President can’t overturn election result
Deputy committee chair Liz Cheney of the Republican Party spoke of a “nonsense theory”. “It was wrong, and Dr. Eastman knew it was wrong. In other words, it was a lie.” A document submitted by the U-Committee also incriminates Trump himself: According to a testimony by Pence adviser Greg Jacob, Eastman admitted two days before the Capitol storm in Trump’s presence that his proposal would violate US federal law.
In the midst of the ongoing certification of Biden’s election victory, hundreds of Trump supporters had stormed the Capitol. The session of Congress had to be adjourned and could only be completed after the Capitol was vacated.
Donald Trump unconcerned for Pence’s safety
The U-Committee now played the testimony of a former White House Counsel, Eric Herschmann. According to Eastman, the day after the storming of the Capitol, he said: “Get a damn good criminal defense attorney. You’ll need him.”
Thursday’s public hearings of the investigative committee focused on Trump’s attempts to pressure Pence. The president-elect spoke with his deputy on January 4, 5 and 6, 2021 and also used speeches and the short message service Twitter as a means of pressure. In an address to supporters on the morning of January 6, Trump repeatedly mentioned Pence’s name. Trump supporters even chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” during the Capitol storm.
According to Liz Cheney last week, Trump is said to have said: “Maybe our supporters have the right idea.” Pence would “deserve” that. Even during the storming of the Capitol, Pence apparently realized that his president had dumped him. When asked by the investigative committee whether Trump had at any point called Pence to ask if he was safe, Jacob said, “He didn’t.” Pence was “frustrated”.
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Source: Stern
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