Mike Stiegler revealed that Trump never called down to check on Pence as Trump fans hunted him at the Capitol, and that we were "that close" to losing the VP.
Former White House Situation Room officer Mike Stiegler revealed that then-President Donald Trump never called down to check on then-Vice President Mike Pence as Trump fans hunted him at the Capitol, and that we were “that close” to losing the VP.
On Tuesday’s edition of ABC’s Good Morning America, anchor George Stephanopoulos sat down with Stiegler, whose account of the Capitol riot is included in the host’s new book “The Situation Room.”
In a stunning exchange, Stiegler revealed just how close Pence came to getting killed — to the point of asking “Where’s the second in line?” — and that Trump never called down to the White House nerve center to ask about Pence:
Does anyone else kinda wish they had succeeded at this? I feel like we would be having a very different conversation about J6 if they had killed a Republican politician. Like, maybe Trump wouldn't be on the ballot if it had happened that way. And let's face it, the world would not miss Pence...
No, I don't. Trump came dangerously close to creating a constitutional crisis that day, that he could have leveraged to retain power, by getting his dumbass cultists to attack the capitol. Had they succeeded in killing the VP, the one who is supposed to certify the election, there would have legit been a constitutional crisis.
I don't, because IIRC the plan was to take Pence out of the picture, have Graham assume the role of Senate president pro tempare in his place, and then Graham would use the fake electors as a justification to refuse to certify Biden's election. From there, it would get thrown to Congress, where each state's congressional delegation get a single collective vote to decide who becomes president. Republicans outnumber Democrats in enough state delegations to throw the election to Trump.
In other words, the timeline Pence dies is the one where the coup succeeds.
Does anyone else kinda wish they had succeeded at this?
There are a lot of sitting Senators that could make the world a better place by just dropping dead. Idk if I'd want the Jan6thers to claim that many scalps. But if they'd all died of heart attacks a week later, I would not have minded.
Like, maybe Trump wouldn’t be on the ballot if it had happened that way.
Nah. But maybe Mitt Romney wouldn't be doing an interview in which he insisted Biden should pardon Trump.