Former Vice President Mike Pence blames Donald Trump for endangering his household “and all these serving on the Capitol” on Jan. 6 in a brand new memoir launched Tuesday.
In “So Assist Me God,” Pence recounts, for the primary time in his personal phrases, the Republican former president’s extraordinary effort to push him to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election and shares his account of the day hundreds of rioters stormed the Capitol, with some chanting “Hold Mike Pence.”
“They’d come to protest the results of the election and to forestall Congress from fulfilling its duty to open and rely the Electoral Faculty votes,” Pence writes. “And, as I later realized, many had come on the lookout for me.”
The e book, which traces Pence’s life in politics — from serving as youth coordinator for a neighborhood Democratic Social gathering to watching then-Vice President Al Gore certify his election loss days after Pence had been sworn in as a member of Congress — largely defends Trump, glossing over and whitewashing a lot of his most contentious episodes. “I had all the time been loyal to President Donald Trump,” the e book begins.
However Pence, who spent years refusing to publicly criticize his outdated boss, makes clear that Jan. 6, 2021, was a breaking level during which, he writes, Trump’s “reckless phrases had endangered my household and all these serving on the Capitol.”
“For 4 years, we had a detailed working relationship. It didn’t finish properly,” Pence writes, summing up their time within the White Home. Nonetheless, he provides, “we parted amicably when our service to the nation drew to a detailed. Within the months that adopted, we spoke every so often, however when the president returned to the rhetoric that he was utilizing earlier than that tragic day and started to publicly criticize these of us who defended the Structure, I made a decision it will be finest to go our separate methods.”
The e book, printed by Simon & Schuster, comes as Pence seems more and more possible run for president in 2024, a transfer that might put him in direct battle with Trump, who’s anticipated to formally launch his personal reelection marketing campaign in Florida on Tuesday night time.
Pence, who within the e book by no means immediately states that Democrat Joe Biden received pretty, writes that when Trump first advised holding a rally in Washington on Jan. 6, the day Pence was set to preside over the election’s certification, he thought it was a good suggestion. “My first thought was {that a} rally that day could be helpful as a strategy to name much more consideration to the proceedings on the ground of the Home and Senate,” he writes.
As an alternative, Pence describes sitting within the Senate chamber and presiding over the certification when the Senate parliamentarian leaned over to tell him that rioters had breached the constructing and a member of his Secret Service element speeding over to insist they go away. Pence refused to vacate the constructing and was as a substitute ushered to a Senate loading dock, the place he spent hours, surrounded by employees and members of the family, making calls to navy and congressional leaders to coordinate the federal government’s response, because the president — who by no means bothered to test in on Pence’s security — sat cloistered, watching TV.
“Throughout was a blur of movement and chaos: safety and law enforcement officials directing individuals to security, staffers shouting and working for shelter. I may see the depth within the eyes of the Secret Service element; it was audible, too, within the voices of the Capitol Police. I may hear the autumn of footsteps and offended chanting,” Pence writes. Nonetheless, Pence insists he was “not afraid,” solely offended at what was unfolding.
At 2:24 p.m., as Pence remained in hiding, Trump fired off that notorious tweet saying Pence “didn’t have the braveness to do what ought to have been achieved to guard our Nation and our Structure.”
“I simply shook my head,” Pence mentioned he responded. “The reality was, as reckless because the president’s tweet was, I actually didn’t have time for it. Rioters have been ransacking the Capitol. … The president had determined to be a part of the issue. I used to be decided to be a part of the answer. I ignored the tweet and obtained again to work.”
Pence additionally describes Trump’s marketing campaign to stress him to reject the outcomes of the election by rejecting Electoral Faculty votes or sending them again to the states, regardless that the Structure makes clear that the vice chairman’s function is solely ceremonial.
Throughout one lunch on Nov. 16, 2020, Pence mentioned he informed Trump that “if the authorized challenges got here up brief and if he was unwilling to concede, he may merely settle for the outcomes of the elections, transfer ahead with the transition, and begin a political comeback, successful the Senate runoffs in Georgia, the governor’s race in Virginia in 2021, and the Home and Senate in 2022.”
“That completed, I mentioned, he may run for president in 2024 and win,” Pence writes. “He appeared unmoved, even weary, on the prospect.”
“‘I don’t know, 2024 is to date off,’” Pence writes that Trump informed him “earlier than returning to the standing of election challenges in numerous states.”
At one other lunch, Pence mentioned he inspired Trump “not to take a look at the election ‘as a loss — simply an intermission’” and mentioned if he “nonetheless got here up brief” after exhausting each authorized choice, Trump ought to “take a bow” and later run once more.
“He nodded, pointed at me as if to say, ‘That’s price contemplating,’ and walked into the again hallway,” Pence writes. “I’ll all the time want he had.”
However because the lawsuits Trump’s authorized workforce was pushing continued to fail, Pence writes that Trump’s temper darkened and he grew to become more and more irate. Pence says Trump berated him, telling him, “You’re too sincere,” and predicting that “a whole lot of hundreds are gonna hate your guts” and “individuals are gonna assume you’re silly.”
“As the times wore on, it was changing into clear that there could be an actual price to me politically once I presided over the certification of the 2020 election,” Pence writes. “I all the time knew that I didn’t possess the authority to overturn the election. I knew it will be hurtful to my buddy for me to take part within the certification. However my obligation was clear.”
After the Capitol was cleared of the rioters, Congress reconvened and Pence presided over the certification of his and Trump’s loss. For a number of days the 2 males didn’t communicate. However after they lastly met, 5 days later, Pence mentioned they spent greater than 90 minutes collectively, alone.
“I informed him that I had prayed for him for the previous 4 and a half years, and I inspired him to wish,” Pence mentioned he informed Trump. “’Jesus may also help you thru this,’ I mentioned. ‘Name on Him.’ He didn’t say something.”
“With real unhappiness in his voice, the president then mused, ‘What if we hadn’t had the rally? What in the event that they hadn’t gone to the Capitol?’ Then he mentioned, ‘It’s too horrible to finish like this.’”
