Trump suggested Mike Pence should be hanged for refusing to overturn 2020 election, witness testified

As he watched on television as his supporters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” while storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump remarked that his vice president should perhaps be hanged over his refusal to block the certification of Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The comment was relayed to colleagues by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, and appeared in testimony given to the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the events of that day, the Times reported.

Matching the story in the Times, Politico reported that “three people familiar with the matter” confirmed that Trump had “expressed support for hanging his vice president.”

Shortly before the violence erupted at the Capitol, Trump had whipped up a crowd of several thousand supporters at a rally where he specifically targeted Pence.

“Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country, and if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you, I’ll tell you right now,” Trump said.

By then, Pence had already decided he would not attempt to block the certification of the Electoral College vote showing Trump had lost to Biden. As the formality of tallying the votes got underway, the crowd who had watched Trump outside the White House marched to the Capitol with the purpose of disrupting the count.

Overwhelming Capitol Police, smashing windows and forcing their way inside the building, many of Trump's supporters chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” with some erecting a makeshift gallows fitted with a noose. As he watched the mayhem unfolding, Trump reportedly made his remark, though as the Times noted, the exact wording and the tone he used remain unclear.

Taylor Budowich, a spokesperson for Trump, released a statement to the Times and Politico, that, while not directly denying that the former president made the comment about Pence, went after the Jan. 6 committee.

“This partisan committee’s vague ‘leaks,’ anonymous testimony, and willingness to alter evidence proves it’s just an extension of the Democrat smear campaign that has been exposed time and time again for being fabricated and dishonest,” Budowich said in the statement. “Americans are tired of the Democrat lies and the charades, but, sadly, it’s the only thing they have to offer.”

A spokesperson for Pence declined a request from Yahoo News for comment.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Meadows aide, confirmed to the Jan. 6 committee that her boss had recounted Trump’s remark about hanging Pence, the Times reported. A lawyer for Meadows told the Times that he had “every reason to believe” the story about what Meadows said “is untrue.”

In an interview with ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl last year, Trump was asked about the “Hang Mike Pence” chant and whether he had worried about his vice president’s safety during the riot.

“Were you worried about him during that siege? Were you worried about his safety?” Karl asked.

“No, I thought he was well protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape,” Trump responded. “No, I had heard he was in very good shape. But, but — no, I think —”

“Because you heard those chants, that was terrible, I mean, you know, those —”

“He could have — well, the people were very angry,” Trump continued.

“They were saying, ‘Hang Mike Pence,’” Karl added.

“Because it’s — it’s common sense, Jon, it’s common sense that you’re supposed to protect. How can you — if you know a vote is fraudulent, right — how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress?” Trump said.

In a February speech to the Federalist Society, Pence refuted Trump’s contention that he simply could have blocked the Electoral College certification.

“President Trump is wrong: I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president,” Pence said.

In April, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who serves on the Jan. 6 committee, described the effort by the Secret Service to remove Pence from the Capitol building as the certification of the Electoral College vote was halted by the rioters.

“The Secret Service agents, who presumably were reporting to Trump’s Secret Service agents, were trying to spirit him off of the campus and he said, ‘I’m not getting in that car until we count the Electoral College votes.’ He knew exactly what this inside coup they had planned for was going to do,” Raskin said in an interview at Georgetown University, adding, “This was not a coup directed at the president. It was a coup directed by the president against the vice president and against the Congress.”