Jan. 6 Was More Harrowing Than Mike Pence Ever Imagined

WASHINGTON — He began the day with a prayer.

Vice President Mike Pence, making ready to face up to the ultimate stage of a relentless marketing campaign by President Donald J. Trump to drive him to illegally attempt to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election, started Jan. 6, 2021, surrounded by aides at his official residence on the Naval Observatory, asking God for steering.

The group was anticipating a tough day. However what adopted over the subsequent 12 hours was extra harrowing than they imagined.

An offended mob with baseball bats and pepper spray chanting “dangle Mike Pence” got here inside 40 toes of the vp. Mr. Pence’s Secret Service element needed to hustle him to security and maintain him for practically 5 hours within the bowels of the Capitol. Mr. Trump referred to as Mr. Pence a “wimp” and worse in a rough and abusive name that morning from the Oval Workplace, Mr. Trump’s daughter and former White Home aides testified.

And a confidential witness who traveled to Washington with members of the Proud Boys far-right militia later advised investigators the group would have killed Mr. Pence — and Speaker Nancy Pelosi — in the event that they obtained the possibility.

These have been among the many extraordinary new particulars that emerged through the third public listening to held Thursday by the Home Choose Committee to Examine the Jan. 6 Assault on the US Capitol.

Mr. Pence’s day dawned because it usually did. The vp, whose evangelical religion was a promoting level for including him to the presidential ticket in 2016 however usually a supply of skepticism for Mr. Trump, was joined by three folks in prayer: his chief counsel, Greg Jacob; his chief of employees, Marc Quick; and his director of legislative affairs, Chris Hodgson

Mr. Pence and the workforce had been subjected to a barrage of calls for from Mr. Trump that the vp refuse to certify Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Electoral School victory in a joint session of Congress — an unconstitutional motion by no means earlier than taken within the two and a half centuries because the nation’s founding.

“We simply requested for steering and knowledge, understanding the day was going to be a difficult one,” Mr. Quick mentioned in videotaped testimony performed by the committee.

Whereas Mr. Pence was on the Naval Observatory, Mr. Trump was within the Oval Workplace with aides and members of the family trickling out and in, together with Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Lara Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Ivanka Trump. He had already despatched two Twitter posts additional pressuring Mr. Pence, the primary at 1 a.m. The second, at 8 a.m., concluded, “Do it Mike, it is a time for excessive braveness!”

At 11:20 a.m., Mr. Trump referred to as Mr. Pence, who stepped away from his aides to take the decision.

The group within the Oval Workplace might hear Mr. Trump’s aspect of the decision however paid little consideration to what appeared to start out as a routine dialog. However as Mr. Trump grew to become more and more heated that Mr. Pence was holding agency in his refusal to offer in, the decision grew to become exhausting to disregard.

“I keep in mind listening to the phrase ‘wimp,’” Nick Luna, an aide to Mr. Trump, mentioned in videotaped testimony. “‘Wimp’ is the phrase I keep in mind.”

Ivanka Trump, the president’s older daughter and a former high White Home adviser, mentioned in her videotaped testimony that “it was a unique tone than I heard him take with the vp earlier than.”

Ms. Trump’s chief of employees, Julie Radford, appeared in videotaped testimony to say that Ms. Trump advised her shortly after the decision that Mr. Trump had an “upsetting” dialog with Mr. Pence. The president, Ms. Radford mentioned, used “the P phrase.” (The New York Occasions reported beforehand that Mr. Trump had advised Mr. Pence, “You may both go down in historical past as a patriot or you’ll be able to go down in historical past as a pussy,” in accordance with two folks briefed on the dialog.)

Over on the Naval Observatory, Mr. Pence returned to the room after taking the decision trying “steely,” “decided” and “grim,’’ his former aides advised the committee.

Mr. Trump within the meantime revised a speech that he delivered later that day to throngs of supporters on the Ellipse. An early draft of the speech, the committee mentioned, included no point out of Mr. Pence. However after the decision, the president included language that video footage confirmed riled up the mob.

“I hope Mike goes to do the suitable factor,” Mr. Trump mentioned in his speech. “I hope so. I hope so. As a result of if Mike Pence does the suitable factor, we win.”

“All Vice President Pence has to do is ship it again to the states to recertify and we develop into president and you’re the happiest folks,” Mr. Trump continued, referring to one among his calls for that Mr. Pence ship the election outcomes again to the states, a delaying tactic that he hoped would in the end maintain him in workplace. If Mr. Pence did not comply, Mr. Trump advised the gang, “that will likely be a tragic day for our nation.’’

He added, “So I hope Mike has the braveness to do what he has to do. And I hope he doesn’t hearken to the RINOs and the silly people who he’s listening to,” utilizing the time period for “Republicans in title solely.”

Mr. Trump directed his supporters to march to the Capitol and make themselves heard.

By the point Mr. Pence arrived on the Capitol along with his spouse, Karen Pence, and their daughter Charlotte, an offended mob was already massing exterior.

Inside, because the joint session started, Mr. Pence’s aides launched a memo to the general public laying out the vp’s view that he didn’t have the facility over the certification that Mr. Trump and his lawyer, John Eastman, insisted he did.

Shortly after 2:10 p.m., the proceedings have been interrupted by loud noises. The mob was swarming into the constructing. At 2:24 p.m. — when Democrats on the committee mentioned Mr. Trump was conscious that the Capitol had been breached — the president posted to Twitter that “Mike Pence didn’t have the braveness to do what was obligatory.”

At that time, the Secret Service had moved Mr. Pence from the Senate chamber to his workplace throughout the corridor. His advisers mentioned the noise from the rioters had develop into audible, main them to imagine that they had entered the constructing. But there was not but a pervasive sense of alarm.

As soon as in his workplace, Mr. Pence sat along with his household, together with his brother, Consultant Greg Pence and high aides as Mr. Quick ducked downstairs to seize some meals. Mrs. Pence drew the curtains to maintain the rioters from trying in.

Mr. Quick made his means again to the workplace. By then, Tim Giebels, the lead Secret Service agent for Mr. Pence, had made just a few makes an attempt to nudge Mr. Pence and his household to maneuver to a unique location. However quickly he was not making a suggestion. Mr. Pence, he mentioned, needed to get to security.

The entourage started to make its means down a stairway towards an underground loading dock — the purpose at which they got here inside 40 toes of the rioters. Mr. Pence and his aides didn’t know on the time simply how shut they have been to the mob, a few of whom have been threatening to kill him.

“I might hear the din of the rioters within the constructing,” Mr. Jacob mentioned Thursday on the listening to. “I don’t assume I used to be conscious they have been as shut as that.”

From the loading dock, Mr. Pence dealt with calls to congressional leaders who had been evacuated from the Capitol complicated and ordered the Pentagon to ship within the Nationwide Guard. The Secret Service directed him to get right into a automobile and evacuate, however he refused to go away the constructing.

“The vp didn’t need to take any likelihood that the world would see the vp of the US fleeing the US Capitol,” Mr. Jacob mentioned Thursday, noting that Mr. Pence didn’t need to give the rioters the satisfaction of disrupting the proceedings greater than that they had already performed. “He was decided that we’d full the work that we had set out to try this day.”

One particular person he by no means spoke with once more that day was Mr. Trump, who didn’t name to examine on Mr. Pence’s security. Neither did the White Home chief of employees, Mark Meadows.

Simply after 8 p.m., the Senate chamber opened once more, after the rioters had been cleared from the complicated.

“Right this moment was a darkish day within the historical past of the US Capitol,” Mr. Pence mentioned because the proceedings started once more. He was greeted with applause when he mentioned, “Let’s get again to work.”

Again on the White Home, egged on by a few of his advisers, Mr. Trump advised aides he wished to bar Mr. Quick from coming into the West Wing from then on.

At 3:42 within the morning, it was throughout. Mr. Biden’s victory had been licensed.

At 3:50 a.m., as Mr. Pence and Mr. Quick went their separate methods, Mr. Quick texted his boss a passage from the Bible.

“I’ve fought the great struggle, I’ve completed the race, I’ve stored the religion,” the message learn.