WASHINGTON — Days before rioters roamed the halls of the US Capitol threatening to ‘hang’ Mike Pence,” Donald Trump told his vice president that people will “hate your guts” and “think you’re stupid” if he fails to stop the 2020 election certification.
The New Year’s Day warning was not the first time Trump pressured Pence to overturn the election results. It wasn’t the last either. In what became known as “Operation Pence Card,” Trump spent weeks publicly and privately pressuring his vice president to help him. staying in power after losing.
“You’re too honest,” Trump criticized his vice president during that morning conversation on January 1.
After they hung up, the president tweeted a reminder to his followers to come to Washington in a few days for the “BIG Protest Rally” — which January 6, 2021: Capitol riot.
The conversations between the president and his vice president, detailed in that of Special Counsel Jack Smith court file this week show the extraordinary efforts Trump went to overturn the 2020 election, even as he lays the groundwork to challenge this year’s competitionif he loses.
Pence is no longer standing by Trump and has refused to support the Republican nominee’s bid to return to the White House. Trump and his new vice presidential running mate, J.D. Vancestill refusing to accept the 2020 election results who won the presidency Joe Biden.
At a crucial moment during this week’s debate between Vance and the Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim WalzVance declined to say whether he accepted the results of the last election. In a grim response, Walz said, “That’s why Mike Pence isn’t on this stage.”
A large part of the special counsel file talks about the tumultuous months after the elections in November, when Trump – surrounded by allies, among others Steve Bannonhis former campaign manager turned podcast host, now in prison after a contempt conviction by Congress, ordered his team to fight to keep him in office. The former president, indicted on criminal charges in the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, the new filing called “election interference” and has sought to have the case dismissed.
The day after the election, Trump told Pence to investigate claims of voter fraud in states they previously won when they first ran for office together in 2016.
“It was just a matter of seeing, let me know what you think,” Pence recalled of their Nov. 4 phone call. “But he told me the campaign would fight, go to court and take challenges.”
That weekend, with Biden projected as the winner, Pence tried to “encourage” Trump “as a friend” to reflect on all he had accomplished.
“You took a dying company and gave it new life,” Pence told Trump on November 7.
As the days passed, the Trump campaign gave what Pence described as a “sober and somewhat pessimistic report” on the state of the election challenges they faced.
“Pence gradually and carefully tried to convince the defendant to accept the lawful outcome of the election, even if it meant losing,” the court said.
“Don’t give in, but recognize that the process is over,” Pence told his defeated running mate on November 12.
Four days later, Pence encouraged the president at a private lunch to accept the results and run again in four years. “I don’t know, 2024 is so far away,” Trump responded, according to the filing.
A shift occurred in early December. Trump began to think about the role of Congress in the electoral process.
“For the first time, he mentioned to Pence the possibility of challenging the election results in the House of Representatives,” the filing said, citing a Dec. 5 phone call.
It was the start of an intensifying public and private campaign, orchestrated by Trump, that would weigh heavily on Pence in the coming weeks and ultimately raise concerns about his own safety. Some details are described in Pence’s own book“So help me God.”
Trump and his team of outside lawyers, led by Rudy Giuliani, “developed a new plan” after their legal challenges all failed. It targeted seven states that Trump had lost, based on a proposal from a law professor Johannes Oostman create alternating electoral lists who would argue that the defeated president had actually won?
And they turned their attention to Pence.
They falsely claimed that Pence, in his ministerial role as president of the Senate, could decide which one on January 6 slates of voters to select them or send them both back to the states for reconsideration, prosecutors said.
“They lied to Pence, told him there was substantial campaign fraud and hid their orchestration of the scheme,” the prosecutor wrote. “And they lied to the public, falsely claiming that Pence had the authority to reject electoral votes during the certification process.”
Members of Trump’s campaign staff called the plan “crazy” and derogatorily referred to those who organized it as characters from the “Star Wars bar.”
Trump told Pence about his plans for a Jan. 6 rally and expressed the thought it would be a “big day,” the filing said.
When they had lunch together a few days later, on December 21, Pence again encouraged Trump not to view the election as a loss, but as “just a break.”
Pence told the president that if they still fall short, “after we have exhausted all legal proceedings in the courts and Congress,” Trump should “bow out.”
But Trump wouldn’t budge. On December 23, Trump retweeted “Operation Pence Card” and began “directly and repeatedly pressuring” Pence, prosecutors said, and continued to “call on” his supporters to gather in Washington.
When Pence called the president on Christmas Day to wish him a Merry Christmas, Trump told him that he had the authority over certification during his chairmanship of Congress.
“You know, I don’t think I have the authority to change the outcome,” Pence said.
As January 6 approached, the days became more desperate for Trump. The president contradicted his vice president during the New Year’s morning phone call. The next day, he asked Georgia’s foreign minister to “find 11,780 votes” that could prove he had won that state’s election. He later told Pence that a senator would request a 10-day delay on certification during the proceedings. “You can make the decision,” Trump told Pence.
Pence was taking five pages of contemporaneous notes during a meeting at the White House when Trump directed his team to outline the plan for Pence, saying, “If there is fraud, the rules change.”
Pence told them, “I don’t see this argument working.”
“The conspirators were undeterred,” the prosecutor wrote, and Trump continued to publicly pressure Pence.
“I hope Mike Pence gets through this for us,” Trump said at a rally in Georgia.
During a private meeting in the Oval Office on January 5, the defeated president once again told his vice president: “I believe you have the power to revoke the certification.”
When Pence remained unmoved, Trump threatened to publicly criticize him: “I’m going to have to say you’ve done a great disservice.”
This involved Pence, the prosecutor wrote, and the vice president’s Secret Service was alerted.
Trump called Pence later that evening along with his lawyers to again raise the issue of returning the voters to the United States. Trump called Pence again late that night: “You have to be strong tomorrow.”
The next morning, January 6, before Trump took the rally stage, he called Pence again.
When Pence again denied the request, the prosecutor wrote, Trump was furious.
Trump again added comments about Pence in his speech. And Trump sent a mob of angry supporters to the Capitol.
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
