Hunted by Trump supporters
Pence didn’t want to flee the Capitol
6/17/2022 3:23 am
When a mob instigated by Trump stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, they were primarily looking for one man: Vice President Mike Pence, who is to certify the result of the presidential election. Leaving the building is out of the question for him at this point, says one of his advisors.
In the investigative committee into the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, witnesses have revealed new details about the chaotic hours of that day. A former adviser to then-US Vice President Mike Pence, Greg Jacob, described in a public hearing on Thursday (local time) how Pence, despite the outbreak of violence at Congress headquarters, refused to leave the premises against the advice of his security forces. “There was no way the vice president wanted to risk the world seeing the vice president of the United States flee the US Capitol,” said Jacob, who accompanied Pence at the time.
His boss was determined to complete the certification of the presidential election results. He saw it as a “constitutional duty” to bring this to an end. Pence therefore stayed in a safe place on the Capitol grounds for hours and later returned to the Senate room from there. When asked if at any point President Donald Trump called Pence to ask if he was safe, Jacob said, “He didn’t.” Pence was “frustrated”.
Several witnesses also described a heated phone call between Trump and Pence that morning, during which the then President used multiple swear words. Trump supporters stormed the seat of parliament on January 6, 2021. The US Congress met there to formally confirm the election victory of Trump’s democratic challenger Joe Biden. The violent crowd wanted to prevent that. Pence then chaired the session of Congress in his role as Vice President. Trump had previously openly called on his deputy to block the procedure.
Shortly before the attack, Trump had incited his supporters at a rally that his election victory had been stolen. He also explicitly incited his supporters against Pence. At the time, they were looking for the vice president in the building, whom they called a traitor and threatened to hang because he did not prevent Biden’s confirmation. The committee is working on the unprecedented outbreak of violence from back then.