To review this article, My Account, and then View Saved Stories
To review this article, My Profile, then View Saved Stories
By Susan B. Glasser
This content can also be viewed in which it originates.
It has been difficult over the past two weeks to see and relive the horrific events of January 6, 2021. As the House committee tasked with investigating the attack on the Capitol held its televised hearings, they broadcast videos of the violence and again. The symbol is no more memorable, and more disturbing, than that of the wooden gallows that Donald Trump supporters erected on the Capitol lawn as rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!Hang Mike Pence! The committee documented that those threats were real. According to an affidavit from the F. B. I. According to the panel on Thursday, a government insider said members of the far-right militant organization Proud Boys told him they would have killed Pence “if they had had the chance. “more than 40 feet while fleeing to safety.
The wickedness of those in the crowd towards Pence, the holiest evangelical Christian you who had spent the last 4 years as Donald Trump’s slavishly faithful sidekick, remarkable.
“If Pence contributes, we’re going to drag fools through the streets,” said one filmed troublemaker. “He deserves to burn with others,” said another. A guy with a loudspeaker waving to the crowd. Mike Pence betrayed the United states Unidos. de America,” he told the already agitated crowd. “Mike Pence betrayed this president. ” He ended with a risk and a promise: “We will never, ever forget.
The explosive end to Trump’s presidency has been the story of a rift between Trump and Pence, two of the most disparate figures ever introduced into a marriage of political expediency. For four years, Trump tried and tried his Moralizer No. 2, but Pence never parted ways. Not in public, nor, as far as we know, nor in person. He stood out during the Trump years for doing and saying to the fullest anything that was news. When he debated Kamala Harris during the 2020 campaign, his greatest memorable moment was when a fly landed on his impeccably combed white hair and did not react during the full two minutes he was sitting on his head.
But on Jan. 6, Pence after all broke with Trump, refusing to settle for the president’s absurd, illegal, and unconstitutional plot to have his vice president single-handedly overthrow the will of other Americans and block Joe Biden’s congressional confirmation. victory. . On Thursday, the House committee set its hearing to discuss Trump’s plan to pressure Pence, which was spread in a series of incendiary presidential tweets, angry phone calls and bizarre meetings at the White House that were a combination of constitutional law seminars. and live recreations of “The Godfather. ” The committee brought a new villain to a national television audience: John Eastman, the former law professor who invented the absurd legal theory that Pence could unilaterally cancel the election, a quid pro quo invented for what U. S. District Judge David Carter recently called a ” coup in search of a legal theory.
If the audience was designed to gut Eastman’s professional reputation, it was perfectly successful. It turned out that he was inconsistent, not at the level and legally and traditionally of poor quality in his work. Greg Jacob, Pence’s former lawyer, said Eastman even acknowledged, at one point, that he knew his theory was unconstitutional and would most likely be unanimously rejected in the Supreme Court, if it ever succeeded. The committee’s biggest revelation of the day was an email from Eastman to Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. , asking for a presidential pardon for himself. ” I have to deserve to be on the list of forgiveness, if this is still ongoing,” Eastman wrote. Lawyers who believe they have done nothing wrong are not in the habit of asking for forgiveness. When called to testify through the panel, Eastman cited his Fifth Amendment right opposed to self-incrimination a hundred times, Texas Rep. Pete Aguilar revealed.
But of course, Americans don’t care about John Eastman. They don’t deserve it either. It was President Trump who desperately grasped Eastman’s absurd argument that the vice president determines the winner of the presidential election. It was Trump who brought this buffoon to the White House, Trump who demanded that Pence attend repeated meetings with him, and Trump who continued the graphic.
Trump didn’t care about Eastman’s legal theories. He just looked for him to provide one. Its purpose was to retain force through all obligatory means. Once again, the Jan. 6 panel presented irrefutable evidence that Trump personally orchestrated the crusade, inflaming the crowd when Pence did not relent, as Trump had hoped, after 4 years of relenting. In a dramatic phone call from the Oval Office on the morning of Jan. 6, with his circle of family members gathered around him listening, the president rebuked and lashed out at his vice president. Trump called him a “coward,” according to one witness. A former adviser to Trump’s own daughter, Ivanka, recalled Ivanka telling her that Trump had called Pence. Capitol. ” It was like he was pouring gasoline on the fire,” one of his White House officials, Sarah Matthews, testified of the tweet.
By natural coincidence, I’m sure, Thursday’s hearing took place on the 7th anniversary of the day Trump presented his presidential crusade with that well-known escalator to the lobby of Trump Tower. Shortly after the hearing was over, I got a fundraising email from Trump asking, “That day 7 years ago?”and promising him that if he sent him cash before 11:59 p. m. it wasn’t clear. ) Trump’s scam continues.
And that was the lifeline of Thursday’s debates over the language of the 1887 Electoral Count Act and the powers vested in the vice presidency. Trump remains not only an email fundraiser, but also the subject of historical research. It remains what retired federal judge Michael Luttig, a conservative legal icon who pleaded with Pence, called him at Thursday’s hearing: a “clear and safe danger” to the nation. ♦
When the Capitol was drilled, a New Yorker reporter became the only reporter in the Senate House to witness his desecration.
Inside the room, Luke Mogelson captured raw, visceral photographs of the seat.
Should Americans call January 6 a demonstration, an act of treason, or else?
This is through the January 6 newspapers.
How a mother of 8 has become one of the world’s greatest mysteries and a fugitive from the F. B. I.
Violence what Donald Trump wanted.
If America needs to remain a democracy, Trump will be held accountable.
Subscribe to our newsletter to get the most productive stories from the New Yorker.
By registering, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement.
Sections
continuation
© 2022 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Your use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and your California privacy rights. The New Yorker would possibly earn a portion of the sales of products purchased on our site as part of our partnerships with retailers. This site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used unless you have the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Choice of ads