![]() “If we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections-we’ll lose our country.” “The truth is there’s more at stake than our party or our political fortunes,” he said. He also countered the revisionist view of January 6 as being a peaceful protest by very fine people who are now political prisoners: Pence called it “a dark day” and framed the question as being about the survival of democracy. Last February, Pence gave a speech in which he said that Trump was “wrong” about the election. But attending the inauguration-something the outgoing president refused to do-was an implicit and public acknowledgment of Biden’s victory. He should have been much more aggressive in repudiating Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election. In the intervening months, Pence has tried, however ineffectually, to push back against the most virulent aspects of the Trump administration. When Kamala Harris made her entrance, Pence applauded her in turn. The people assembled to witness the inauguration of Joe Biden clapped politely. The trumpets played a fanfare he and his wife, Karen, were announced, and they walked down the red carpet together, holding hands. On January 20, Pence returned to the Capitol. ![]() Pence single-handedly averted the next catastrophe, and then tried to restore some sense of normal functioning to our democracy. Had Pence done what the president of the United States and his party’s members in Congress demanded he do, it’s not clear what would have happened next.įrom the January/February 2018 issue: God’s plan for Mike Pence The crisis was set in motion by President Trump and then abetted by Republicans in the House and Senate who voted to reject electors. This extraordinary series of events added up to a constitutional crisis. So he stayed in an underground loading dock until it was safe for him to return to the Joint Session and formalize Joe Biden’s victory. ![]() Per Haberman’s reporting, the Secret Service wanted to evacuate Pence from the Capitol, but the vice president refused to leave, because he judged that doing so would weaken our democracy and give Trump and his violent followers a victory. Pence was probably unaware that one mile away, as Trump was watching the scene on television, the president said, two witnesses reportedly told the Committee, “something to the effect of, maybe Mr. Whether Pence knew these details at the time remains unclear-he was being hustled out of harm’s way by the Secret Service. Other Trump supporters attacked police, breached the building, and roamed the halls chanting, “Hang Mike Pence.” After the mob stormed the Capitol, Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”Īround this same time, some of Trump’s supporters erected a gallows-an actual hanging station-outside the Capitol building. At Trump’s January 6 rally on the Mall, the president told his audience, “You’re never going to take back our country with weakness,” and said he hoped Pence would “do the right thing” by not certifying the election. Maggie Haberman writes that on January 5, Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, called the Secret Service to inform them that “the president was going to turn publicly against the vice president, and there could be a security risk to Mr. Pence knew what the president’s mafioso talk meant. I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” When Pence informed him that this was not legally permissible, Bob Woodward and Robert Costa reported, the president told him, “You can do this. Recall that Trump had demanded that Pence refuse to count the Electoral College votes and certify the election at the Joint Session of Congress that was to formalize the outcome of the 2020 election. Or any Republican not named Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger. Yet Pence did more to protect democracy-both on January 6 and since-than any other person inside the Trump administration. Pence has long been caricatured as a comically loyal stooge standing behind the president with befuddlement on his face and a fly on his head. Because while Pence may not be the hero you or I might have wanted, he was the hero America needed. And then Joe Biden could give Pence the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The House and Senate could propose nonpartisan resolutions recognizing Pence for his service to democracy. Congress can name a building in his honor. Here is another idea the committee might consider: Take a moment to praise Mike Pence. The object of the hearings is to hold these bad actors to account and propose systemic reforms to prevent another insurrection. At the January 6 Committee hearings this week, there is likely to be evidence of gross misbehavior-bordering on sedition-from President Donald Trump and his confederates.
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