According to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who is a member of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, then-Vice President Mike Pence refused to get in a waiting car apparently procured for him by Secret Service agents around the time of the Capitol violence. “I’m not getting in that car,” the then-VP apparently stated. Pence’s refusal, of course, suggests some knowledge on the then-vice president’s part of the seriousness of what was unfolding. Pence, Raskin said, “knew exactly what this inside coup they had planned for was going to do.” Also according to Raskin, the riot committee is prepared to present evidence indicating some level of coordination between Trump’s inner circle and those who participated in the attack on the Capitol last year. These details make the threats posed to democracy that day abundantly clear.
New: Jan. 6 committee member Adam Schiff suggests on CBS the panel wants to know why Trump acknowledged to McCarthy that he bore some responsibility for the Capitol attack: “This is an admission of guilt.”
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) April 23, 2022
Raskin made these remarks at an event put on late last week by Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice in the nation’s capital. While there, the riot panel member also remarked that upcoming hearings put on by the committee “will tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House.” According to Raskin, committee members are planning on holding these additional public hearings in June, with a report summarizing their findings coming later. Raskin remarked as follows:
‘No president has ever come close to doing what happened here in terms of trying to organize an inside coup to overthrow an election and bypass the constitutional order… And then also use a violent insurrection made up of domestic violent extremist groups, white nationalist and racist, fascist groups in order to support the coup… It’s anybody’s guess what could have happened — martial law, civil war. You know, the beginning of authoritarianism… I want people to pay attention to what’s going on here, because that’s as close to fascism as I ever want my country to come to again.’
NEW: Jan. 6 committee got testimony that Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows was told by White House counsel the scheme to have alternate Trump slates of electors in states that he lost would be unlawful — but WH went ahead anyway, per new court filing.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) April 23, 2022
As Raskin explains, those on Trump’s side wanted enough of Joe Biden’s electoral votes to be blocked to bring his total below 270, passing off the responsibility of picking the next president to the House. In such scenarios, each state delegation gets one vote, and Republicans controlled enough delegations to put Trump back in office for four more years (in theory, at least). The problem, of course, is that going along with that scenario would have been illegal. Pence, who was a target of pressure from Trump and those aligned with him to block Biden’s victory, didn’t have the legally recognized power to do what was hoped for while overseeing the Congressional proceedings to certify the election outcome. It’s worth noting that Trump wasn’t actually all-that-concerned when questioned about the chants of “Hang Mike Pence!” that rang out during the riot. Directly asked about the animosity against Pence from rioters, Trump said: “Because it’s common sense… It’s common sense that you’re supposed to protect… If you know a vote is fraudulent, right? — how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress?”
Q: Did you ever advocate for martial law with any member of the Trump administration?
MTG: I don't recall.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 22, 2022
