Key Takeaways from the Third January 6 Hearing
On Thursday, June 16, the nonpartisan January 6 Select Committee held its third public hearing. The committee revealed the details behind Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to try and force the former Vice President Mike Pence to go along with an unlawful scheme to overturn the 2020 election. Trump and Eastman began their campaign as early as December 2020. They pursued the radical theory knowing it was unconstitutional.
Here are the key takeaways:
1. Upset that he lost the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and his lawyer, John Eastman, hatched a radical theory into motion that would allow the Vice President to pick a president over the will of the people. It was unconstitutional—and they knew it.
.@BennieGThompson: Trump tried 62 court cases. He tried to pressure state legislatures & DOJ. All that failed.
"Eventually he latched on to a completely nonsensical and anti-democratic theory that one man —his own Vice President—could determine the outcome of the election."
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) June 16, 2022
On January 4th, John Eastman admitted that rejecting the electoral votes would violate federal law, per chief counsel to VP Pence. Again, they knew they were violating the law. #January6thHearings
— Wendy Weiser (@WendyRWeiser) June 16, 2022
2. As early as December 2020, Donald Trump and John Eastman began their pressure campaign for Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the will of the people, knowing the plan went against the law.
Breaking:
Greg Jacob, Pence's former counsel, describes what John Eastman told him: "Al Gore did not have a basis to [overturn the election results] in 2000, Kamala Harris shouldn't be able to do it in 2024, but I think you should do it today."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 16, 2022
3. Vice President Mike Pence and his staff did not believe and did not support Trump’s radical attempts to have the Vice President overturn the election.
"There is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president."
– Former Vice President Mike Pence pic.twitter.com/yy6pPdBzFa— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 16, 2022
"The vice president never budged," Greg Jacob said, when asked if Pence ever wavered on overturning the election, under pressure from Trump and Eastman.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) June 16, 2022
Former Pence Chief of Staff Marc Short when asked if Pence conveyed to Trump that he was not willing to block Congress from certifying the 2020 election:
“Many times.” pic.twitter.com/WNrx4GdQtZ
— The Recount (@therecount) June 16, 2022
4. Judge Michael Luttig outlined the constitutional crisis Trump would have created if his plan had worked.
If Pence had done what Trump demanded it "would have plunged America into what I believe would have been tantamount to a revolution within a constitutional crisis," said Judge Luttig.#Jan6thCommitteeHearing pic.twitter.com/1ry0oQpd3E
— Common Cause (@CommonCause) June 16, 2022
If Mike Pence obeyed Donald Trump’s orders not to certify the Electoral College votes, it would have put the U.S. into “a revolution within a constitutional crisis,” J. Michael Luttig, a retired judge said to the vice president's advisor ahead of Jan. 6. https://t.co/vFumpDySvJ pic.twitter.com/tHLx2tmx3U
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 16, 2022
5. Even though Vice President Mike Pence told Donald Trump he would not—and legally could not—reject the American people’s votes in the 2020 election, Donald Trump waged a public pressure campaign anyway—including at the rally the morning of January 6.
Rep Aguilar: “The President had been told multiple times that the Vice President could not affect the outcome of the election, but he nonetheless publicly pressured Mike Pence to do just that.” #January6thCommitteeHearings pic.twitter.com/dTJKHaaUap
— Brennan Center (@BrennanCenter) June 16, 2022
Trump January 4 rally in Georgia, threatening Pence, even after constant advice that Pence would not and could not do as he demanded. #HATH
— Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) (@HC_Richardson) June 16, 2022
6. On January 5 and 6, John Eastman and Donald Trump explicitly asked Vice President Mike Pence to reject the votes of the American people. Trump did so both privately and publicly, including at the rally before the attack on the Capitol.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) quotes from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's book "Peril," describing what Trump reportedly said to VP Pence when Pence refused to overturn the 2020 election result:
"I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this." pic.twitter.com/hsvtFIg0iM
— The Recount (@therecount) June 16, 2022
Donald Trump continued to pressure Mike Pence leading up to the Joint Session of Congress. On January 6, Trump called Pence.
Here's what the President family members and staff said about that call: pic.twitter.com/gravPfdzjl
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 16, 2022
Rep. Pete Aguilar: "Our investigation found that early drafts of the January 6 Ellipse Rally speech prepared for the President included no mention of the Vice President. But the President revised it to include criticism of the Vice President and then further ad-libbed."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 16, 2022
7. On January 6 at 2:24 pm, Trump tweeted criticizing Vice President Mike Pence for not participating in Trump’s illegal scheme. Immediately after, the mob at the Capitol “surged.”
.@RepPeteAguilar: "Our investigation found that immediately after the President’s 2:24pm tweet, the crowds both outside the Capitol and inside the Capitol surged … the VP was quickly evacuated from his ceremonial Senate office to a secure location within the Capitol complex." https://t.co/rQ0ykDBIiV
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) June 16, 2022
This Trump tweet from January 6 was just cited in the hearing https://t.co/huaLIL6vHt
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) June 16, 2022
Mike Pence refused to give in to the scheme to overturn the election, and "Trump turned the mob on him."
"The danger has not receded." #January6thCommitteeHearings pic.twitter.com/twptCesxke
— CAP Action (@CAPAction) June 16, 2022
The @January6thCmte has revealed that the Proud Boys told the FBI they “would have killed Mike Pence if given the chance. Anyone they got their hands on they would have killed, including Nancy Pelosi.”
— Common Cause (@CommonCause) June 16, 2022
8. Donald Trump knew the insurrectionists were attacking the Capitol when he sent the tweet criticizing Vice President Mike Pence.
Rep. Pete Aguilar: Mark Meadows' aide Ben Williamson and White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews testified that Meadows went to the Dining Room near the Oval to tell Trump about the violence at the Capitol *before* the Trump's 2:24pm tweet attacking Pence.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 16, 2022
Trump knew 'violent mob' was at the Capitol when he tweeted about Pence, Aguilar says https://t.co/CmgPr3wN2M
— L.A. Times Politics (@latimespolitics) June 16, 2022
9. Even after the violent insurrectionists broke into the Capitol, Trump’s lawyer, John Eastman, again asked Vice President Mike Pence to break the law and refuse to certify the 2020 election.
Former Pence counsel Greg Jacob testifies Mike Pence said John Eastman still pushing Pence to block the election certification after the insurrection was “rubber room stuff.” pic.twitter.com/9stBXrRYrP
— The Recount (@therecount) June 16, 2022
10. Following the violent insurrection on January 6, John Eastman asked for a pardon. He has pleaded the 5th more than 100 times.
“I’ve decided I should be on the pardon list if that’s still in the works.”
—Dr. John Eastman, legal architect of the scheme to overturn the 2020 election.Donald Trump and his co-conspirators knowingly engaged in a criminal conspiracy.#January6thHearings
— Stand Up America (@StandUpAmerica) June 16, 2022
11. The Vice President of the United States of America was forced into hiding 40 feet away from the insurrectionists.
40 feet between insurrectionists and the vice president.
40 feet between the vice president and possible death.
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) June 16, 2022
Pence was in hiding for 4.5 hours.
Aguilar: "Make no mistake about the fact that the Vice President's life was in danger."
Jacob says that Pence said he trusted his agent but did not necessarily trust the person who would be driving his security vehicle if he left the Capitol.
— Chris “Law Dork” Geidner (@chrisgeidner) June 16, 2022
12. Former Federal Judge Luttig reminded us that those who attacked our country have not stopped. We must hold accountable everyone who planned and promoted January 6.
"Donald Trump and his supporters are a clear and present danger to American democracy. That's not bc of what happened on January 6th, it's bc to this very day" Trump and his allies would attempt to overturn the 2024 election & possibly succeed, says retired Judge Michael Luttig.
— Carrie Johnson (@johnson_carrie) June 16, 2022