The January 6 Committee put Donald Trump’s extraordinary effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat into ever-clearer focus Thursday. As in the previous hearings, the testimony was a combination of live and video from Trump’s and Pence’s advisors and staff. The testimony described the constant and increasing pressure by Trump and his lawyer John Eastman on his Vice President starting right after the election. He pressured Pence in vulgar private taunts and public entreaties, bordering on threats, in Trump’s effort to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory on January 6. The president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, testified about the “heated” phone call he had with Pence that morning, as the family joined in the Oval Office. Another aide, Nicholas Luna, said he heard Trump call Pence a “wimp.” Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff, Julie Radford, said she was told the president called Pence “the p-word.”
Having lost the election, failed in the 62 court lawsuits and in all attempts to get the Secretary of States to change the vote counts, Trump latched onto conservative law professor John Eastman’s obscure plan to defy historical precedent of the Electoral Count Act and reverse Joe Biden’s victory.
Thursday’s hearing unpacked the Eastman plan. They selected their own slate of “uncertified” electors for the states which Trump was disputing, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. With competing elector slates for Trump or Biden, they wanted Pence to reject them outright and throw them out. This would give Trump more electoral votes than Biden thus throwing the election to Trump immediately. Failing this they would return the electoral votes back to the states to be recounted., This would throw the election into chaos. In his mind, chaos would provide the current President an opportunity to establish martial law and nullify the election.
Trump’s closest advisers viewed his last-ditch efforts to halt congressional certification of his loss as “nuts,” “crazy” and even likely to incite riots if Pence followed through, witnesses revealed in stark testimony Thursday.
The panel heard from Greg Jacob, the vice president’s counsel who fended off Eastman’s ideas for Pence. Jacob said it became clear to Pence from the start that the founding fathers did not intend to empower any one person to affect the election result, and he “never budged.”
The panel also heard from retired federal judge Michael Luttig. Judge Luttig is a well respected conservative judge and legal advisor to Mike Pence. Judge Luttig stated that the Constitution was clear that the Vice President has no authority to impact the electoral count. He called the plan from Eastman, his former law clerk, “incorrect at every turn.” Luttig said in a halting voice but firm terms that had Pence obeyed Trump’s orders, declaring “Trump as the next president would have plunged America into what I believe would have been tantamount to a revolution within a constitutional crisis in America.”
“Are you out of your effing mind?” Eric Herschmann, a lawyer advising Trump, told Eastman in recorded testimony shown at the hearing. You’re going to turn around and tell 78-plus million people in this country that your theory is, this is how you’re going to invalidate their votes?” Herschmann said. He warned, “You’re going to cause riots in the streets.”
Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller said those around Trump called the plan “crazy.”
The committee has said the plan was illegal, and a federal judge has said “more likely than not” Trump committed crimes in his attempt to stop the certification.
The panel revealed how Trump put his vice president in danger as Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, when the defeated president sent his supporters to the Capitol to “fight like hell” over his false claims of a fraudulent election. When it was clear to Trump that Pence was not going to go along with the scheme. Trump sent out a tweet informing the rioters that Pence would not change the election. The rioters surged following the tweet into the Capitol. In my view, Trump turned the rioters onto Pence to threaten his life.
Thursday’s session presented new dramatic evidence about the danger Pence faced as rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” with a makeshift gallows outside the Capitol.
“He deserves to be burned with the rest of them,” one rioter is heard saying on video as the mob prepares to storm the iconic building.
“Pence betrayed us,” says another rioter, wearing a Make America Great Again hat in a selfie video inside the Capitol.
A DOJ informant embedded within the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, reported that these groups were ready to kill Mike pence and Nancy Pelosi if given the opportunity.
Pence’s counsel Greg Jacob testified that he could “hear the din” of the rioters nearby. Asked if Trump ever checked on Pence during the siege, Jacob said, “He did not.”
Rioters came within 40 feet of Pence as Pence was being led from his office to a safe place in the Capitol. 40 feet was how close we came to loosing our democracy and have the country plunged into chaos.
Jacob testified that Pence was determined to stay at the Capitol that night and finish the job, even as his security team prepared for him to leave. Jacob testified that the Secret Service instructed Pence to get into the car. Jacob and most of the staff obeyed but Pence did not. Pence told the Secret Service officer in charge that he was not leaving the building and he did not trust the person driving. In my view, Pence feared that someone in the Secret Service could have an order from a higher authority (i.e. Trump) to remove him from the Capitol so the electoral count could not be completed. Never-before-shown photos showed Pence and his team sheltering.
With live testimony and other evidence from its yearlong investigation, the panel held its third hearing this month aiming to demonstrate that Trump’s repeated false claims and desperate attempt to stay in power led directly to the Capitol insurrection.
All told, the committee is pulling together a dark portrait of the end of Trump’s presidency as the defeated Republican was left grasping for alternatives as courts turned back dozens of lawsuits challenging the vote.
Trump aides and allies warned bluntly in private about his efforts, even as some publicly continued to stand by the president’s false election claims. Nine people died in the insurrection and its aftermath.
The committee has said the plan was illegal, and a federal judge has said “more likely than not” Trump committed crimes in his attempt to stop the certification.
Eastman later sought to be “on the pardon list,” according to an email he sent to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, shared by the committee.
The panel played video showing Eastman repeatedly invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination while being interviewed by the committee.
In a social media post Thursday, Trump decried the hearings anew as a “witch hunt,” lambasted coverage by “the Fake News Networks” and exclaimed, “I DEMAND EQUAL TIME!!!” In my view, the January 6 Committee would welcome Donald Trump to testify under oath and explain his actions on January 6.
On Capitol Hill, panel Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., cited Pence’s own words that there was “almost no idea more un-American” than the one he was being asked to follow — reject Americans’ votes.
By refusing Trump’s demands, Pence “did his duty,” said the panel’s vice-chair, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
The panel’s yearlong investigation is showcasing Trump’s final weeks in office as the defeated president clung to “the big lie” of a rigged election even as those around him — his family, his top aides, officials at the highest levels of government — were telling him he simply had lost.
IN his closing remarks, Judge Lettig stated “I have written that today, almost two years after that fateful day in January of 2021, that still, Donald Trump and his law allies and supporters are a clear and present danger to American democracy.”