Did Pence save America? Jan. 6 panel spotlights VP鈥檚 role.
In this image from video released by the House Select Committee, Vice President Mike Pence talks on a phone from the secure location to which he had been evacuated on Jan. 6 after rioters breached the Capitol. In the hearing on Thursday, June 16, 2022, the committee revealed just how close some of the rioters had actually come to Mr. Pence.
House Select Committee/AP
Washington
鈥淚f men were angels, no government would be necessary,鈥� the framers once wrote. On Thursday, the Jan. 6 committee credited Mike Pence with demonstrating a strength of character far above what the authors of the听Constitution听were counting on when they designed a system of government they hoped would withstand the excesses of human ambition and a lust for power.听
In its third hearing this month, the committee laid out how then-Vice President Pence resisted a weeks-long pressure campaign by Donald Trump to overturn or at least delay the certification of Joe Biden as president.听The committee contrasted Mr. Pence鈥檚 fidelity to the Constitution with what they portrayed as Mr. Trump鈥檚 flagrant disregard for it.
They depicted Mr. Trump as using the Constitution at best as a fig leaf for his own wounded pride, personal ambition, and desire for revenge. Though some conservative scholars took issue with states鈥� rapid and sweeping changes to election laws that led to unprecedented mail-in voting in 2020, the then-president based his call to 鈥淪top the Steal鈥� on unfounded claims of outright fraud.听When that failed in the nation鈥檚 courts, he brought on a lawyer who advanced a dubious claim that the Constitution authorized the vice president to disrupt Congress鈥檚 counting of the electoral votes 鈥� but resorted to insults rather than legal reasoning when Mr. Pence refused.
Why We Wrote This
The Jan. 6 committee portrayed the republic as riding on the fidelity of individuals to the Constitution, whose checks and balances are being severely tested in an age of disinformation and rising political violence.
鈥淭he president latched on to a dangerous theory and would not let go because he was convinced it would keep him in office,鈥� said committee member Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat who led Thursday鈥檚 hearing. 鈥淲e witnessed firsthand what happened when the president of the United States weaponized this theory.鈥�
As in the first two hearings, the committee on Thursday relied on Trump administration officials and other Republican witnesses to make its case, using video clips of committee depositions with Mr. Pence鈥檚 chief of staff, Trump legal advisers, and Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
Retired conservative Judge J. Michael Luttig, who testified in person, called the Trump team鈥檚 legal arguments 鈥渂eguiling and frivolous,鈥� saying they had听鈥渘o basis in the Constitution or the laws of the U.S.鈥澨�
None of the testimony or featured clips provided a defense of Mr. Trump or of the legal reasoning underpinning his strategy, spearheaded by scholar John Eastman, who pleaded the听听in his deposition with the committee.听
The nine-member committee has been criticized on the right for excluding dissenting views. It includes just two Republicans, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to seat two GOP members who had voted against certifying some states鈥� electors, leading Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to pull all five of his appointees. Mr. McCarthy, along with several other Republican lawmakers, has refused to cooperate with the committee despite being served with a subpoena.
Mr. Luttig warned that while听Mr. Pence had prevented the country from plunging into 鈥渞evolution鈥� in January 2021,听the former president and his allies 鈥渁re executing that blueprint for 2024 in open and plain view of the American public.鈥�
In 2019, Ohio State law professor Edward Foley of a potential constitutional crisis if Mr. Trump, in the wake of a close election,听sought to听manipulate the Jan. 6听congressional听proceedings to try to get himself declared the rightful winner.听That idea gained currency in Mr. Trump鈥檚 circles at least two months before the November 2020 elections, and by early December Mr. Trump began actively lobbying Vice President Pence.听
Under the 12th Amendment, Mr. Pence was to preside over a joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes from each state. As dozens of Mr. Trump鈥檚 suits alleging election fraud and irregularities failed to gain traction in the nation鈥檚 courts, the president argued that Mr. Pence could and should disrupt the counting.听
From the beginning, Mr. Pence鈥檚 instinct was that the Constitution did not grant him the authority to do what Mr. Trump and Mr. Eastman had laid out.听
鈥淭he听truth is, there鈥檚 almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president,鈥� said Mr. Pence in a speech last summer, admitting that while it was disappointing to lose the election, more was at stake. 鈥淚f we lose faith in the Constitution, we won鈥檛 just lose elections. We鈥檒l lose our country.鈥�
Much of the testimony in Thursday鈥檚 hearing centered around the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which Congress passed after it had to intervene in a disputed presidential election eight years earlier. The law was meant to avoid such chaos from happening again, but Mr. Luttig and others say the wording is ambiguous and could be exploited by someone less scrupulous than Mr. Pence.听
Greg Jacob, the vice president鈥檚 chief counsel, who also testified in person on Thursday,听described to the Jan. 6 committee how he and his team had reviewed every electoral vote count in America鈥檚 history, the 1876 disputed election, the legislative history of the Electoral Count Act, and every law review article written about its constitutionality. They also fended off two lawsuits filed against the vice president to compel him to 鈥渆xercise imagined extraconstitutional authority鈥� and essentially decide the election himself.听
Two days before the joint session, Mr. Trump and Mr. Eastman met with Mr. Pence and his top aides and laid out a pair of scenarios to provide Mr. Trump a path to victory: Reject the electors of key swing states outright, or send them back to the state legislatures, buying Mr. Trump time to pressure legislators to put forward new slates of electors who would certify him as the rightful winner.
Mr. Eastman recommended the latter course of action. However, Mr. Jacob testified that Mr. Eastman, when pressed, admitted that if that scheme was brought before the Supreme Court, it likely would be thrown out 9-0.听
White House lawyers also disagreed with Mr. Eastman鈥檚 legal analysis, according to multiple Trump and Pence insiders. Mr. Kushner told the committee that he took White House Counsel Pat Cipollone鈥檚 threats to resign as 鈥渨hining.鈥�
That night, Mr. Pence鈥檚 outside counsel called Mr. Luttig for help. The retired judge, a conservative heavyweight in legal circles whom George W. Bush had reportedly considered nominating for the Supreme Court, had recently opened a Twitter account. With the help of his son, he published a听听of tweets that provided Mr. Pence the legal framework to dissent from the Trump-Eastman line of reasoning.听听
On the morning of Jan. 6, Mr. Trump called Mr. Pence and made one final push to change his mind. In a video clip played by the committee, Ivanka Trump testified that the conversation became 鈥渉eated,鈥� adding that it was 鈥渁 different tone鈥� than she鈥檇 heard her father take with Mr. Pence before.听
Several hours later, in his 鈥淪ave America鈥� rally speech, Mr. Trump called on Mr. Pence to 鈥渄o the right thing.鈥� 鈥淎ll Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to re-certify, and we become president, and you are the happiest people in the world,鈥� he said, urging his supporters to march on the Capitol to encourage lawmakers to support only the 鈥渓awfully slated鈥� electors. 鈥淣ow it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy.鈥澨�
At the Capitol, rioters chanted 鈥淗ang Mike Pence,鈥� and breached the Senate side of the building as the vice president was overseeing a challenge to Arizona鈥檚 electors. Secret Service whisked him out of the chamber to his nearby office, then hurried him down a stairway just around the corner from rioters. They took him to a loading dock and urged him to evacuate. Nearly all of his entourage got in vehicles to depart the complex.
鈥淏ut he looked at that and said: 鈥業 don鈥檛 want the world seeing the vice president leaving the Capitol in a 15-car motorcade,鈥� 鈥� his then-chief of staff Marc Short told CNN this week. 鈥� 鈥楾his is the hallmark of democracy. And we鈥檙e going to complete our work.鈥� 鈥澨�
Around 8 p.m., Mr. Pence gaveled Congress back into session. Just before midnight, Mr. Eastman made one last plea to go through with their plan. Mr. Pence resisted to the last, and shortly before 4 a.m. Congress declared Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the winners of the 2020 election.
But the danger has not passed, cautioned Judge Luttig, who has urged Congress to reform the Electoral Count Act so that America鈥檚 democracy will rest squarely on the rule of law and听never again be contingent on one elected official鈥檚 integrity.听听
鈥淣o American ought to turn away from January 6, 2021,鈥� he said, 鈥渦ntil all of America comes to grips with what befell our country that day, and we decide what we want for our democracy from this day forward.鈥澨�