US democracy "close to catastrophe" - Donald Trump attacks Mike Pence again

Created: 06/18/2022, 07:44

By: Lukas Zigo, Daniel Dillmann

Donald Trump apparently planned an illegal coup attempt on January 6, 2021.

Mike Pence prevented that. That put him in great danger.

• Donald Trump's Vice:

  Mike Pence didn't want to leave the Capitol despite the angry mob.

• No contact with reality:

  Donald Trump's allegations of voter fraud are "insane," according to his former Attorney General William Barr.

• Big rip-off instead of big lie:

  The Democrats accuse Donald Trump of cheating his own electorate with allegations of electoral fraud.

• Committee meets in Washington DC:

  In the US capital, a congressional committee of inquiry has been dealing with the events of January 6, 2020 for months.

+++ Update from Saturday, June 18, 7:45 a.m .:

Donald Trump has again made serious allegations against his own former Vice President Mike Pence.

“Mike didn't have the courage to act.

He could have done historic things, but he was afraid of whatever," Donald Trump said in a speech in Nashville, Tennessee.

+++ 2.30 p.m .:

As Vice President, Mike Pence did exactly what Donald Trump asked of him for four years.

On January 6, 2021, however, Pence refused to follow the then President.

"He withstood the pressure," said committee chair Bennie Thompson after the third public hearing on the storming of the Capitol.

"He knew it was illegal.

He knew it was wrong.” The country can count itself lucky that Pence was so brave.

"That courage put him in grave danger." Thompson warned, "On January 6, democracy came dangerously close to catastrophe."

A photo from January 6, 2021 shows the gallows that Trump supporters had erected near the Capitol during the hearing - apparently for Mike Pence.

© Tom Brenner/Imago

Donald Trump himself knew that his advisor John Eastman's plan to have Mike Pence overturn the result of the election was not covered by the constitution. The hearing on June 16 made this clear once again.

Nevertheless, Trump kept pushing his deputy to do so.

Basically, this was nothing more than an illegal coup attempt.

That's how the former conservative judge Michael Luttig, who advised Pence at the time, sees it.

In a written statement, Luttig said Trump and his allies knew full well that he had lost the election.

According to Luttig, if Pence had heeded Trump's call, it would have plunged the United States into a "revolution" and a "constitutional crisis."

Luttig warned that Trump and his followers continue to pose a threat to democracy.

They have already announced that they will try again in the 2024 presidential election to overturn the election results if they do not turn out as they wish.

• The next dates of the public hearings in the investigative committee

• Tuesday, June 21, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. (CEST)

• Thursday, June 23, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. (CEST)

Donald Trump's vice in focus: "Proud Boys would have killed Mike Pence"

Update from Friday, June 17, 9 a.m.:

The hearings in the Capitol Storm Committee on January 6 are more and more about the role of Mike Pence.

Vice President Donald Trump was at the center of events on the day he, in his role as Senate Chairman, had to declare Joe Biden the winner of the election.

Trump's team wanted to prevent this through legal means, while the mob outside the door used sheer violence.

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"You can rest assured that the vice president's life was in danger," said Pete Aguilar, congressman of the Democratic Party.

In fact, Donald Trump's supporters kept yelling "Hang Mike Pence!" that day.

Jacobs cited the testimony of an FBI informant whom the agency had planted with the Proud Boys, a far-right, chauvinist thugs from the United States.

He confessed to the FBI that the Proud Boys "would have killed Mike Pence if they had had the chance."

Donald Trump: Advisor to Vice President Mike Pence testifies

+++ 10.45 p.m .:

In the committee of inquiry into the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, witnesses have revealed new details about the chaotic hours that day.

A former adviser to then-US Vice President Mike Pence, Greg Jacob, described in a public hearing on Thursday (local time) how Pence, despite the outbreak of violence at Congress headquarters, refused to leave the premises against the advice of his security forces.

"There was no way the vice president wanted to risk the world seeing the vice president of the United States flee the US Capitol," said Jacob, who was accompanying Pence at the time.

His boss was determined to complete the certification of the presidential election results.

He saw it as a "constitutional duty" to bring this to an end.

Pence therefore stayed in a safe place on the Capitol grounds for hours and later returned to the Senate room from there.

Storming the Capitol: Donald Trump didn't call Pence

When asked if President Donald Trump ever called Pence to ask if he was safe, Jacob said, "He didn't." Pence was "frustrated."

Several witnesses also described a heated phone call between Trump and Pence that morning, during which the then President used multiple swear words.

Trump supporters stormed the seat of parliament on January 6, 2021.

The US Congress met there to formally confirm the election victory of Trump's democratic challenger Joe Biden.

The violent crowd wanted to prevent that.

Pence then chaired the session of Congress in his role as Vice President.

Donald Trump: Hearing on the Capitol storm postponed at short notice

+++ 2.20 p.m .:

The special committee of the House of Representatives to investigate the events of January 6, 2021 has postponed its hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET.

The committee also announced on Tuesday (June 14, 2022) that it will hold two hearings in the coming weeks -- one on June 21 and another on June 23 -- both at 1 p.m. ET.

Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren (California), a member of the committee, cited "technical problems" as the reason for the postponement.

These are "not a big deal".

"It's just technical issues," she said.

“You know the staff who put all the videos together.

You know, one, two, three, it was overwhelming.

So we try to give them a little leeway.”

Donald Trump: Violent argument in the Oval Office shortly before the Capitol storm

Update from Wednesday, June 15, 9:30 a.m .:

According to a new report from the Washington Post, the nerves in the White House were on edge shortly before January 6, 2021.

In the presence of Donald Trump, the two factions of the government at the time are said to have clashed in the middle of the Oval Office.

On one side: Jeffrey Clark, Deputy Attorney General.

On the other side: Richard Donoghue, environmental attorney and Justice Department clerk.

US Capitol Storm Hearings: Witnesses make Rudy Giuliani look old 

+++ 3.30 p.m .:

The investigation into the storming of the Capitol continues to gain momentum in the USA.

On June 13, the role of Donald Trump was the focus of the hearing of the committee of inquiry.

Several former government officials and campaign advisors have clearly distanced themselves from Trump's actions and openly contradicted his talk of voter fraud.

The former US President reacted extremely coldly to the statements from his environment (see update from 8 a.m.).

But not only Trump was the focus on Monday, another person in Trump's circle got off very badly.

In any case, many witnesses were not on good terms with Rudy Giuliani.

They were mostly highly critical of Giuliani, whom they portrayed as the leader of a group of conspiracy fanatics.

"What they suggested I thought was crazy," said former Trump attorney Eric Herschmann.

Donald Trump raises $250 million with 'Big Lie'

+++ 12.00 p.m .:

It remains exciting in Washington DC.

The public hearings of the commission of inquiry into the storming of the Capitol enter the third day.

Donald Trump's role remains at the center of the debate.

After Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and ex-Attorney General William Barr had distanced themselves from Donald Trump in their statements, it was also about the income that the former president had made with his allegations of voter fraud.

Trump and his team are said to have raised $250 million in donations alone.

This money was collected under the pretense of paying court costs arising from lawsuits against the election results and how they came about.

In fact, the vast majority of the money ended up in Trump's own lobby group, the Save America Political Action Committee.

Hearing on the storming of the Capitol: Donald Trump harshly rejects allegations

Update from Tuesday, June 14, 8:00 a.m .:

Former US President Donald Trump has rejected allegations by the investigative committee to storm the US Capitol in a multi-page document.

Trump accused the committee on Monday evening of making “justice a laughingstock” and excluding exonerating witnesses.

In the twelve-page letter, which also contains a number of footnotes, Trump repeated his unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud and fantasies of election victory.

He accused the Democrats and US President Joe Biden of destroying the country.

"The Democrats [...] are doing everything in their power to stop me - but we cannot be stopped," it said.

Donald Trump has 'lost touch with reality'

+++ 19.15 p.m .:

After the lost presidential election in 2020, according to former US Attorney General William Barr, no reasonable conversation with then President Donald Trump was possible.

At the second public hearing of the investigative committee into the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, video recordings of an interview with Barr were again shown.

"I felt like it was possible to reason with the president before the election," Barr said.

After the US election in November 2020, Trump stopped listening.

"I was a little demoralized because I was like, boy, if he really believes this stuff, he's lost touch with reality," Barr said of Trump's voter fraud allegations.

Update from Monday, June 13, 2022, 4 p.m.:

The hearing on the events of January 6, 2021 was postponed by about 20 minutes.

It was now known in advance that Trump's former campaign manager Bill Stepien would not appear in person as expected.

Consistent sources report that Stepien's wife will soon have a child, so he will not appear in person today.

Stepien will send a delegation that will make a statement.

It is not yet known whether Stepien will appear on another day.

However, this should not change the orientation of the hearing.

First report from Monday, June 13, 2022, 2:00 p.m.:

Washington DC – On January 6, 2021, a wave of horror goes through the democratic world.

Supporters of US President Donald Trump, who was still in office at the time, used violence and armed to gain access to the cradle of US democracy, the Capitol.

In addition to trying to prevent the Senate and House of Representatives from formally confirming new US President Joe Biden, the attackers chanted "Hang Mike Pence" and threatened several other politicians with violence.

Now there is a breakthrough in the investigation.

On Sunday (June 12, 2022), members of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot said they had uncovered enough evidence for the Justice Department to consider an unprecedented criminal indictment against former President Donald Trump.

He tried to falsify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

USA: Donald Trump's campaign manager surprisingly before making a statement

Donald Trump's former campaign manager Bill Stepien is set to make a surprise appearance before the House Committee on Monday (June 13, 2022).

The committee announced that Stepien, along with Chris Stirewalt – former Fox News political editor, will testify at the first of two sessions on Monday.

The second session will feature prominent anti-Trump conservative election attorney Ben Ginsburg, former Philadelphia Republican election official Al Schmidt, and former US Attorney in Georgia BJ Pak.

US MP: Authorities must investigate 'every credible allegation'

The committee began its public hearings last week, with members laying out their arguments against Trump.

They want to show how the defeated president relentlessly pushed his false claims of a rigged election, despite several advisers suggesting otherwise.

Democrats say additional evidence will be released this week.

This is intended to show that Trump and some of his advisers have made a "massive effort" to spread misinformation.

They are also said to have pressured the Justice Department to accept the false claims and urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to dismiss the state elections and block confirmation of the Jan. 6, 2021 election.

USA: Will Donald Trump be charged?

Attorney General Merrick Garland will ultimately decide whether Donald Trump will be charged.

Based on the hearings, he must decide whether his authorities can and should prosecute Trump.

According to committee members, the evidence is sufficient for a trial.

Garland had not commented on whether he was ready to press charges.

That would be unprecedented and potentially very complicated in a political election season in which Trump has openly flirted with the idea of ​​running for president again.

USA: Donald Trump with Premiere – No charges have ever been brought against any US President

Richard Nixon resigned from office in 1974, facing impeachment and a likely grand jury charge of bribery, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

President Gerald R. Ford later pardoned his predecessor before indictments related to Watergate could be brought.

Legal experts have said that a Justice Department prosecution of Trump over the riot could set an uncomfortable precedent in which one party government could routinely crack down on the former president of another party.

"We will follow the facts wherever they lead us," Garland said in his speech at Harvard University's inaugural ceremony last month.

(lz/dil with AFP/dpa)