The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack reported claims from three separate testimonies that say former President Donald Trump supported protestor’s chants to “hang Mike Pence,” his vice president.
He allegedly made the comments to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who is being held in contempt of Congress for refusing a subpoena from the select committee. He has not been charged by the Justice Department.
Trump and Pence’s relationship deteriorated during Trump’s last months in office over Pence’s resistance in going along with Trump and his allies’ plan to overturn the 2020 election results after Trump lost to President Joe Biden.
On January 6, 2021, Pence was presiding over the counting of votes before the joint session of Congress to certify Biden’s win. Trump attorney, John Eastman, allegedly urged Pence to “object the electors,” and introduce illegitimate electors who had signed fake documents in five swing states.
Pence made his stance clear as he separated himself from Trump earlier this year.
“There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress, I possessed unilateral authority to reject Electoral College votes. And I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to ‘overturn the election,’” Pence at an event in February.
“President Trump is wrong,” the former vice president added. “I had no right to overturn the election, The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone. Frankly, there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”
