CNN
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On the morning of January 6, 2021, in a last-ditch bid to overturn his election loss, then-President Donald Trump informed then-Vice President Mike Pence that his resolution to uphold his constitutional obligation and certify the outcomes later that day can be “a political profession killer,” in line with a witness who overheard a part of the decision.
The witness, a White Home valet who was with Trump throughout most of that fateful day, described the cellphone name to the now-defunct Home committee that investigated the January 6 insurrection. He may solely recall Trump’s facet of the dialog, however he recounted a direct menace delivered by the outgoing president to his personal vp.
“Mike, this can be a political profession killer for those who do that,” Trump mentioned. “Do what’s proper.”
The transcript of the valet’s testimony, first obtained by the New York Times, wasn’t made public by the January 6 committee earlier than they dissolved in early 2023, however Home Republicans launched it Friday. The valet was not recognized by identify.
The decision between Trump and Pence was their final contact earlier than Trump delivered his incendiary speech on the Ellipse, the place he informed 1000’s of his most ardent supporters to march to the US Capitol and “combat like hell” to cease Congress from certifying the outcomes of the 2020 election, throughout a joint session that Pence can be presiding over.
The valet informed lawmakers he didn’t hear what Trump was referring to when he informed Pence that he shouldn’t “do that.” However the context makes clear that Trump was making an attempt one final time to persuade Pence to overturn the outcomes by throwing out Democratic electors and seating Republican electors as a substitute whereas presiding over the joint session.
Earlier than that decision, Pence and his prime advisers had repeatedly informed Trump there was no authorized foundation to meddle within the electoral vote tally and that it could violate the Structure. In a letter to lawmakers on January 6, Pence mentioned what Trump wished him to do can be “fully antithetical” to “our Structure, our legal guidelines, and our historical past.”
“I don’t imagine that the Founders of our nation meant to speculate the Vice President with unilateral authority to resolve which electoral votes needs to be counted through the Joint Session of Congress, and no Vice President in American historical past has ever asserted such authority,” Pence wrote to lawmakers in his letter disavowing Trump’s theories.
Trump’s menace to Pence proved true. Pence declared his candidacy for the 2024 GOP nomination in June however by no means gained traction with the Trump-loving Republican base. He dropped out in October and introduced final week that he would not endorse Trump.