How Trump told Pence to overturn election: ‘You can go down in history as a patriot or a p***y’
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Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., prepare to read the final certification of Electoral College votes cast in November's presidential election during a joint session of Congress after working through the night, at the Capitol on 7 January 2021 in Washington, DC.
(Getty Images)In his bid to halt the joint congressional session during which lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s victory, Donald Trump allegedly told vice president Mike Pence that “you can either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a p***y."
According to a New York Times report, Mr Trump was enraged by Mr Pence’s refusal to help him overturn the election results, and made a last ditch attempt to push the vice president into intervening on 6 January, shortly before he was to head to the Capitol.
It was during this joint session when supporters of the president breached the security of the Capitol Hill, some of them chanting that Mr Pence be hanged, forcing the secret service to evacuate Mr Pence to the basement.
In a dramatic blow-up between the two highest elected offices of the country, the president did not call to check up on his deputy but launched an incendiary attack on him on Twitter, saying that he lacked “the courage” to take action.
Meanwhile, the vice president has confirmed that he will not follow through on the resolution passed by the House on Tuesday calling for him to remove and replace Mr Trump as the president of the country after he was accused of inciting a deadly insurrection.
With Mr Pence declining to be the first vice president to use the 25th Amendment to remove the President, the House will now move to impeach Mr Trump on Wednesday, who has less than eight days left in the office.
Several prominent Republicans have already announced to put their weight behind the calls for impeachment, including GOP conference chairwoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming and congressmen Adam Kinzinger from Illinois and John Katko from New York.
Ms Cheney, in his unsparing criticism of Mr Trump for his role in inciting a mob to attack the Capitol, said, “The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame. ... There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has said that the president committed an impeachable offence, however, it is yet to be seen if the Senate will actually move to remove Mr Trump from the Oval Office.
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