The Jan. 6 House Select Committee hearings showed America an iconic photograph of former Vice President Mike Pence in the Capitol loading dock as a mob of Trump supporters swept the building, some shouting, “Hang Mike Pence.”
Pence has a phone to his right ear as he holds in his left hand a cell phone that shows a video of Trump telling the Jan. 6 mob to leave the Capitol and go home.
Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal features an excerpt of Pence’s new book, “So Help Me God” that reveals Pence’s take on the 2020 election and the Capitol Hill riot. Pence writes,
We had no television in the garage, so my staff and security team briefed me on the situation using police radio communications and Twitter. The House and Senate leaders had been whisked away to a secure location off Capitol Hill, but other members were barricaded in the House chamber as Capitol Police worked to hold back the mob.
My unflappable assistant Zach Bauer walked up sheepishly and handed me his phone. The president had sent a tweet at 2:24 p.m.: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”
Rioters were ransacking the Capitol. Some of them, I was later told, were chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!” I ignored the tweet and got back to work.
While Pence’s Secret Service detail urged the vice president into a car in the loading dock, the vice president refused to yield, “You’re not hearing me, I’m not leaving! I’m not giving those people the sight of a 16-car motorcade speeding away from the Capitol,” he told lead agent Timothy Giebels.
There are so many things that could have gone worse that day. The mob might have found a high-profile Democrat to pummel. Pence could have gotten into the motorcade, which would have incited the mob even further.
Or Trump could have told the rioters to go home as soon as they breached the building. Or he could have skipped the rally on the mall where he urged the crowd to march on the Capitol.
Pence offers,
With genuine sadness in his voice, the president mused: “What if we hadn’t had the rally? What if they hadn’t gone to the Capitol?” Then he said, “It’s too terrible to end like this.”
True, and yet that is how Trump’s tenure did end — terribly.
The timing of the Pence book release could not be better for the Republican party. The loss of many Trump-endorsed candidates Tuesday signaled that the GOP needs to move away from Trump.
It won’t be a slow walk backwards. It will be a stampede.
Debra J. Saunders is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership. Contact her at dsaunders@discovery.org.