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Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) revealed insurrectionists came within about 40 feet of then-Vice President Mike Pence during the January 6 attack on the Capitol in the Select Committee hearing on Thursday, June 16. The hearing focused on how former President Donald Trump put pressure on Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 election before rioters stormed the Capitol, calling for the VP to be hung. More AboutDonald Trump
The Jan 6 committee revealed how Trump was ‘pouring gasoline on the fire’ by sending out an incendiary tweet against Mike Pence — and that rioters came as close as ’40 feet’ from the VP pic.twitter.com/1vSOgQJ1Dl
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) June 16, 2022
After footage of the rioters was shown, spliced with interviews with staff and tweets Trump sent on that day, Aguilar admitted just how close the rioters got to the vice president. After they breached the Capitol, it was revealed that those storming the Capitol entered the crypt, which right below where Pence was staying before being evacuated. “The secret service couldn’t control the situation and do their job of keeping him safe,” Pence’s Director of Legislative Affairs Chris Hodgson said during a pre-recorded deposition. Pence was eventually moved to a secure location and stayed there for four hours.
Pence’s former counsel Greg Jacob was shocked to learn how close the attackers were. “I can hear the din of the rioters in the building while we moved, but I don’t think I was aware that they were as close as that,” he explained when asked if he was surprised to learn how close they were.
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Jacob also said that the vice president refused to evacuate because he was “determined” to do the work that needed to be done that day. “The vice president did not want to take any chance that the world would see the Vice President of the United States fleeing the United States Capitol,” he said.
Jacob also revealed that Trump didn’t call Pence or his wife to see if they were safe during the attack on the Capitol, and he said that both felt “frustration” over the fact. Related Link
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The first half of the hearing focused on how Trump pressured the vice president in the weeks leading up to January 6. It was also revealed that Trump knew that Pence didn’t have the power to overturn the results of the election, and that doing so would be illegal.
The third hearing came after a scheduled session for Wednesday was postponed until a later date. The committee’s next hearing will take place on Tuesday, June 21, per NPR. During the opening statements on June 9, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) argued that Trump was responsible for provoking the mob that attacked the Capitol. “President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” she said.
The third committee hearing focused on Trump’s pressures put on his vice president. (Kevin Dietsch/UPI/Shutterstock)While there have only been three hearings so far, the committee has already uncovered much new information about Trump’s election fraud claims. Former Attorney General William Barr has testified in pre-recorded interviews that he had told the former president that he didn’t see evidence of voter fraud nor did he believe the conspiracy theories surrounding Dominion Voting Machines. “I told them that it was crazy stuff and they were wasting their time on that and [it] was doing a great, grave disservice to the country,” he said in his interview. Trump has fired back at Barr’s claims on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s former campaign aides Jason Miller and Bill Stepien both also claimed that the president’s attorney Rudy Giuliani was “intoxicated” on Election Night, and they said that he seemed like he’d had much to drink when he advised Trump to declare victory long before the votes had been counted. “The mayor was definitely intoxicated, but I did not know the level of his intoxication when he spoke to the president,” Miller said in his deposition. “There were suggestions by—I believe it was—Mayor Giuliani to go and declare victory and say that we’d won it outright.” The former NYC mayor has since denied the claims on Twitter and said he was only drinking Diet Pepsi on election night.
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