Pence and his wife hid from mob during riot at Capitol
Vice-president’s ‘life was in danger’ from rioters as Trump piled on pressure to block Biden election win
MIKE PENCE’S wife was forced to draw the curtains to conceal the then vicepresident’s whereabouts after a violent mob came within 40ft of him during the Capitol riot last year.
The then-vice president was targeted by Donald Trump’s supporters after failing to heed his demand to halt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
The real and immediate danger to Mr Pence was revealed by the congressional committee investigating the Jan 6 Capitol attack in grim detail yesterday.
In a live televised hearing, the committee outlined a plot by some rioters “to kill Mr Pence, if given a chance”.
The plot was detailed to the FBI by a confidential informant in the far-right Proud Boys group.
The Jan 6 Committee also shed new light on Mr Trump’s efforts to pressure his vice-president to use his ceremonial role to prevent the certification of Mr Biden’s win in Congress.
In one phone call, Mr Trump called Mr Pence “the P-word” and “a wimp” when his vice-president refused, his former staff told the hearing.
Ivanka Trump, who was also in the Oval Office at the time, told the committee the phone call was “pretty heated”.
“It was a different tone than I’d heard him take with the vice-president before,” she told the committee.
The Committee, made up of seven Democratic and two Republican congressmen, tried to connect Mr Trump’s pressure campaign on Mr Pence to the violent threats he faced on Jan 6.
It revealed that Mr Trump sent a tweet attacking Mr Pence shortly after he was informed there was violence breaking out at the Capitol.
Immediately after the tweet, the “crowds both outside the Capitol and inside surged”, the panel concluded.
The committee played footage of one rioter declaring: “If Pence caved, we’re gonna drag motherf-----s through the streets. You f---ing politicians are gonna get f---ing took to the streets.”
Other footage showed the rioters citing Mr Trump’s attacks on Mr Pence as
‘That’s all there was: 40ft between the vice-president and the mob. [Mr Pence’s] life was in danger’
they stormed the Capitol building.
The extent of the danger to Mr Pence was outlined in his aides’ testimony as well as newly-released photographs.
One image showed Mr Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence, and their daughter sheltering in a room in the Capitol building after being hastily evacuated from the Senate floor as rioters flooded in chanting “hang Mike Pence”.
Mrs Pence rushed to close the curtains when she spotted rioters outside the window, fearing that the attackers would be able to locate them.
“That’s all there was: 40ft between the vice-president and the mob. The vice-president’s life was in danger,” committee member, Pete Aguilar said.
Mr Pence was later rushed to an
‘It is a one-sided, highly partisan Witch Hunt’
underground loading dock in the Capitol, where he spent five hours in hiding.
Mr Trump yesterday condemned the hearing. “The Fake News Networks are perpetuating lies, falsehoods... by allowing the low-rated but nevertheless one-sided and slanderous Unselect Committee hearings to go endlessly and aimlessly on,” he said.
“It is a one-sided, highly partisan Witch Hunt... Therefore, I am hereby demanding EQUAL TIME to spell out the massive Voter Fraud & Dem Security Breach!”
Yesterday’s hearing also featured testimony from Michael Luttig, a former federal judge, who told the committee Mr Trump’s accountability for the Jan 6 riot is “incidental to his responsibility and accountability for his attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election from the American people”.
Had Mr Pence obeyed Mr Trump’s demand, Mr Luttig said, the country would have been plunged into a “revolution within a paralysing constitutional crisis.”