Mounting
evidence suggests Trump knew of danger to Pence when he attacked him as lacking
‘courage’ amid Capitol siege
By
Feb. 11, 2021 at 6:39 p.m. CST
Mounting evidence
emerging as former president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial unfolds in the
Senate this week indicates Trump may have been personally informed that Vice
President Mike Pence was in physical danger during the Jan. 6
Capitol siege, just moments before denigrating him on Twitter.
Trump’s decision to
tweet that Pence lacked “courage” — a missive sent shortly after the vice
president had been rushed off the Senate floor — underscores how he delayed
taking action to stop his supporters as they ransacked the Capitol.
Many of them were
intent on doing harm to Pence, whom Trump had singled out at a rally earlier in
the day, falsely claiming the vice president had the power to stop Congress
from formalizing Joe Biden’s electoral college victory.
Trump’s tweet
came at 2:24 p.m. that day — only 11 minutes after live television
coverage showed Pence being hustled from the Senate floor because rioters were
streaming into the building one floor below. The Senate then abruptly went into
recess.
See all the
evidence presented in Trump’s impeachment trial
Trump was watching
news coverage of the session after he returned from his rally at the Ellipse,
according to a person familiar with the events of the day who, like others
interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe
what was happening behind the scenes.
House impeachment managers played a previously
unseen clip of security footage at the impeachment trial of former president
Donald Trump on Feb. 10. (House Impeachment Managers)
The White House was
typically immediately informed by Pence’s Secret Service detail about any
significant movements involving the vice president, according to another person
with knowledge of the security protocols.
In addition, Trump
heard directly about the vice president’s movements from a GOP senator. Shortly
after Pence was rushed out of the Senate chamber, Sen. Tommy Tuberville
(R-Ala.) spoke to Trump on the phone and told him about Pence’s hasty exit,
Tuberville told reporters Thursday.
“I said, ‘Mr.
President, they just took our vice president out, they’re getting ready to
drag me out of here. I got to go,’ ” Tuberville said he told Trump during the brief call.
The exact time of
their conversation is unknown, but Pence was pulled from the room by the Secret
Service at 2:13 p.m. and senators had fully evacuated the chamber around 2:30.
A Trump spokesman did
not respond to a request for comment.
Trump had spent days
leading up to Jan. 6 publicly and privately pressuring Pence to use his
ceremonial role as the presiding officer of the joint session of Congress to
overturn the election results. Pence had warned Trump that he did not believe
the Constitution gave him that power.
Former administration
officials have said Trump was enraged early that day when Pence privately
informed the president that he had made a final decision: He would not
interfere with the process.
Still, Trump attacked
Pence repeatedly in his midday speech to thousands of supporters gathered at
the Ellipse. Though Trump knew of Pence’s plans, he led the crowd to believe
that the vice president’s actions remained an open question — elevating the
suspense and eventual shock among his supporters at Pence’s perceived betrayal
when the session opened.
“Mike Pence, I hope
you’re going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of
our country,” Trump said. “And if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed
in you.”
Before Trump finished
speaking, Pence issued a lengthy statement announcing publicly that he would
not reject Biden’s electoral college votes.
People familiar with
Trump’s activities said he returned to the White House seething with anger at
his vice president. One said Trump had considered tweeting about his anger
earlier in the day — but decided to hold off until after Pence had formally
opened the proceedings at 1 p.m.
During this week’s
Senate trial, House impeachment managers have zeroed in on Trump’s treatment of his vice
president, showing how the mob specifically targeted Pence, hunting him in the
Capitol, chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” and calling him a “traitor.”
The Trump tweet about
Pence came more than an hour after police reported that metal barricades
outside the Capitol had been overwhelmed by the angry mob and about 12 minutes
after the rioters had made it inside the building.
“Mike Pence didn’t
have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and
our Constitution . . . USA demands the truth!” Trump tweeted.
On Thursday, Rep. Joe
Neguse (D-Colo.), a House impeachment manager, emphasized that Trump did
nothing to try to stop the mob as rioters stormed the building, hunting for
Pence.
“What did President
Trump do?” he asked. “He attacked him more. He singled him out by name. It’s
honestly hard to fathom.”
A group of rioters
had quickly made its way upstairs to the Senate chamber, looking for a way in.
Security footage released by the
House impeachment managers Wednesday showed that just two minutes later,
Pence’s security detail was moving him through the building and to
a secure location.
Leaving his hideaway
near the Senate chamber, Pence and his family dashed about 20 steps to a
stairwell through an open area. Had he followed that route just 12 or so
minutes earlier, he would have been in view of rioters who were in a
confrontation with Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman.
How the rioters who
stormed the Capitol came dangerously close to Pence
Some rioters quickly
learned of Trump’s tweet. A video clip aired by House impeachment managers
Wednesday showed a rioter with a bullhorn on the steps of the Capitol, reading
Trump’s words aloud to the crowd.
Rep. Liz Cheney
(R-Wyo.), who voted to impeach Trump, questioned earlier this
week whether the tweet was “a premeditated effort to provoke violence.”
The mounting signs
that Trump knew about the risks facing Pence when he sent the tweet deepen
questions about his delayed efforts to rein in the violence.
Sen. Bill Cassidy of
Louisiana, one of only a handful of Republican senators who might be persuaded
by the Democrats’ arguments for Trump’s conviction, told reporters after
Thursday’s session that he wanted to hear an explanation from Trump’s lawyers
for his actions that afternoon when they present their case Friday.
He noted that while
police officers were under attack, “The president was calling to try and get more
senators to decertify the election. Now, presumably, since we were at that
point being evacuated and I think he was told that, there was some awareness of
the events. So what I hope the defense does is explain that.”
That afternoon, Trump
was determined to do “whatever it took” to stop the certification, according to
a former senior administration official, and encouraged his personal attorney
Rudolph W. Giuliani to also call senators. “He was happy the results had been
stopped,” the official said.
People familiar with
Trump’s call to Tuberville have told news organizations that the president was
calling to urge the newly elected senator from Alabama to issue further
objections to the electoral count. A former Auburn football coach, Tuberville was
the first senator to announce in the days leading up to Jan. 6 that he would
consider objecting to the counting of some Biden electoral votes as Trump
wished.
“It shows that his
singular focus that day, the day we were attacked, was not protecting us. It
was not protecting you, is not protecting the Capitol. It was stopping the
certification of the election results,” Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.), one
of the House impeachment managers, told the Senate.
The fact that
Tuberville alerted Trump to Pence’s evacuation emerged after his GOP colleague,
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, objected to the account of the episode by the
impeachment managers Wednesday.
Trump had actually
initially called Lee, apparently believing he was calling Tuberville’s phone.
Lee told the Utah newspaper the Deseret
News last month that when he realized the confusion, he handed his
phone to Tuberville and watched as he and the president spoke for five to 10
minutes. He then retrieved his phone, telling Tuberville, “I don’t want to
interrupt your call with the president, but we’re being evacuated and I need my
phone.”
During the impeachment
proceedings, Lee objected to how House Democrats had characterized the episode
and asked that their comments about it be removed from the record. “I’m the
witness. I’m the only witness. Those statements are not true. And I ask that
you strike them,” he said.
His objection highlighted
the awkward reality that senators serving as Trump’s jury are also witnesses to
his actions that day. Confusion about the call could be cleared up if Lee and
Tuberville both provided detailed firsthand accounts of the episode. Senators
in both parties, however, said they do not expect witnesses to be called during
the trial.
A spokesman for Lee
said Thursday that the log of the senator’s cellphone does not go back to Jan.
6, and that he does not remember exactly what time he received the call from
Trump.
However, a voice mail
that Giuliani intended for Tuberville later in the day made clear what Trump
had been hoping to accomplish.
Like Trump, Giuliani
was apparently confused about Tuberville’s phone number and left the message
for Lee instead, according to the conservative publication the Dispatch, which
later published the voice
mail.
The message was left
around 7 p.m. on the night of Jan. 6, by which time law enforcement had
cleared rioters from the building and congressional leaders were discussing
returning to the floor to complete the counting of the electoral college votes.
“I want to discuss
with you how they’re trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our
Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these
legislatures to get more information to you,” Giuliani said in the
message.
He added that he knew
Congress was planning to go back into session but that “the only strategy we
can follow is to object to numerous states.”
Giuliani did not
respond to requests for comment.
In the message,
rather than expressing concern that the process had been halted by a violent
mob, Giuliani complained that Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was
planning to restart the process. McConnell, he alleged, was “doing everything
he can to rush it, which is kind of a kick in the head.”