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Mike PenceMichael (Mike) Richard PenceOvernight Health Care: Biden administration ups vaccine distribution to states | HHS pick to get Senate hearing next week | Average daily new coronavirus cases dip below 90K Fauci says he was nervous about catching COVID-19 in Trump White House Republican support for Trump to play role in party up 18 points from early January MORE has emerged as a key figure in former President TrumpDonald TrumpBiden: 'I'm tired of talking about Trump' Hacker claims to have stolen files from law firm tied to Trump: WSJ Texas governor faces criticism over handling of winter storm fallout MORE's Senate impeachment trial, but those close to the former vice president say he has no intention of getting involved.

Pence's name has been invoked repeatedly during the proceedings this week. The then-vice president was escorted out of the Senate chamber on Jan. 6 as pro-Trump rioters stormed the complex, andthe timeline of events has left unanswered questions about when the former president knew Pence was in danger and what, if anything, he did to intervene.

As the Senate mulls how to proceed, Pence has become something akin to what former national security adviser John BoltonJohn BoltonKey impeachment figure Pence sticks to sidelines Bolton lawyer: Trump impeachment trial is constitutional Former Rep. Will Hurd announces book deal MORE was in Trump's first impeachment trial a potentially valuable witness who would fill in gaps but one who has remained on the sidelines.

"I can't imagine him getting anywhere near this trial," one source close to the former vice president said.

The source also suggested it was unlikely Pence would incriminate Trump if he did come forward. The relationship between the two men soured in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, but Pence was unflinchingly loyal for four years before that and still has aspirations of running for president in 2024.

A spokesperson for Pence did not respond to requests for comment about whether the former vice president or members of his team would be willing to testify if called.

The vice president has been featured in Democrats' case against Trump. House managerspresented footage that showed how close Pence came to encountering rioters when he was first taken out of the Senate.

Rioters were heard chanting both "Traitor Pence" and "Hang Mike Pence" as the mayhem unfolded at the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to news reports and video footage played during the House managers' presentation.

It does not appear Trump's defense team or House impeachment managers are looking to call Pence into the chamber to testify, as both sides appearready to conclude the trial as early as Saturday.

But pressure for Pence to share his accounting of the events on Jan. 6 has only grown in recent days.

"To the patriots who were standing next to the former president as these conversations were happening, or even to the former vice president: if you have something to add here, now would be the time," Rep.Jaime Herrera BeutlerJaime Lynn Herrera BeutlerCongressional Democrats say Trump acquittal was foregone conclusion Sunday shows - Trump acquittal in second impeachment trial reverberates Democratic senator defends decision not to call witnesses: 'They weren't going to get more Republican votes' MORE (R-Wash.), one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, said in a statement late Friday.

Some Republican senators who appear open to voting to convict Trump for inciting violence have expressed particular interest in whether Trump knew Pence was in danger when he tweeted that Pence "didn'thave the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution" by refusing to reject electors forPresident BidenJoe BidenBiden balks at K student loan forgiveness plan Biden offers to help woman in obtaining vaccine for son with preexisting condition Biden optimistic US will be in 'very different circumstance' with pandemic by Christmas MORE.

The tweet was the first Trump sent after protesters forced their way into the complex, and former government officials have voiced skepticism that Trump would not have been notified that Pence was being movedby the Secret Service.

Sen. Mitt RomneyWillard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyState parties seek to punish anti-Trump Republicans Philly GOP commissioner on censures: 'I would suggest they censure Republican elected officials who are lying' Cotton, Romney introduce bill pairing minimum wage increase with tighter citizenship verification MORE (R-Utah), the lone Republican to vote to convict Trump during his first impeachment trial, askedduring proceedings on Fridaywhether Trumpknew Pence was in danger when he criticized his vice president via a tweet.

"The answer is no," Trump attorneyMichaelvan der Veen said.

But that argument has been undercut bySen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a staunch Trump supporter, who has been adamant thatTrump called him as Pence was being taken out of the chamber and that he told the then-president what was happening before hanging up.

Sen. Bill CassidyBill CassidyTrump unloads on McConnell, promises MAGA primary challengers State parties seek to punish anti-Trump Republicans GOP official on Toomey: Wasn't sent to 'do the right thing or whatever he said' MORE (R-La.), who voted that the trial was constitutional and should proceed, pointed to Tuberville's statement in a question of his own Friday.

The tweet and lack of response suggests President Trump did not care that Vice President Pence was endangered or that law enforcement was overwhelmed, Cassidywrote in his question.

Pence has remained out of the spotlight since the mayhem of Jan. 6. He did not speak to Trump for days after the insurrection, but he rejected calls to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the then-president from office.

The former vice president hasnot given an interview since Jan. 6 or addressed his experience during the riots at length. He has announced he will join the Heritage Foundation and Young America's Foundation, two conservative groups where he will keep a foothold in Washington, D.C., as he mulls his political future.

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Key impeachment figure Pence sticks to sidelines | TheHill - The Hill

Was Mike Pence a hero in the siege of the Capitol that has been replayed during Donald Trumps impeachment trial?

Certainly Pence was a potential victim, as House managers demonstrated by playing dramatic security video of the vice president being hustled away to a safe place. But the managers also emphasized that Pence had refused Trumps call for him to act illegally and overturn election results favoring Joe Biden.

Vice President Pence showed us what it means to be an American, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) said on Wednesday. What it means to show courage. He put his country, his oath, his values and his morals above the will of one man.

Praise by Democrats for Pence inspired the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal to remark on the strange new respect on the left for Pence. The Journal dredged up a 2019 tweet in which Lieu told Pence: I will pray for you & hope that your hate of LGBTQ employees and students will one day dissipate.

The Journal suggested that it was hypocritical for Democrats to praise Pence for doing his duty after criticizing him on issues such as gay and transgender rights.

As soon as the second impeachment trial wraps, he will go back to being another dark figure in a political Handmaids Tale told to inspire fear and loathing among Democratic voters, the editorial said. But for everyone else, Mr. Pences defense of the rule of law and the Electoral College should stand as a refutation of that caricature.

A few points:

The Democrats are right to portray Pence as a potential victim on Jan. 6. The insurrectionists chants of Hang Mike Pence! were chilling. But the fact that Pence did his duty doesnt make him a hero.

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Pence was a target of insurrection. He's still not a hero - Los Angeles Times

One of the key questions asked in former President Donald Trumps impeachment trial is whether he knew that his vice president was in mortal peril on Jan. 6. There are only two possible answers: Either he knew and didnt care or he was deliberately and cruelly incurious knowing that he could have easily asked about former Vice President Mike Pence and did not because Pences safety did not matter to him as much as the ambient excitement of the insurrection apparently did.

Trump clearly knew enough to be culpable of knowing. And if he did not, it only proves the House managers point that he was negligent in his duty as commander in chief that day.

One of Trumps lawyers, Michael T. van der Veen, told the Senate on Friday that the former president did not know about the danger Pence was in, which itself is so ludicrous a statement as to demand its own investigation. Trump clearly knew enough to be culpable of knowing. And if he did not, it only proves the House managers point that he was negligent in his duty as commander in chief that day.

Around 2:13 p.m. ET on Jan. 6, Pences Secret Service detail decided to remove him from the Senate floor and take him to a shelter-in-place location below-ground. That security camera footage shown by House managers is, in retrospect, some of the most chilling captured that day. Shortly after Pence makes his way down the stairwell, his military aide, carrying a large briefcase, follows. The briefcase is the nuclear "football" an exact copy of the one the presidents military aide was guarding at the White House that day.

That Pence had a military aide and a briefcase was a surprise to many who arent familiar with the command and control of strategic nuclear forces. Suddenly the import of what happened acquired a new salience: Did Trumps inaction place not only his vice president, but the security of the nuclear deterrent in jeopardy?

Short answer: Yes. About 10 minutes after Pence was evacuated, Trump tweeted in rage, Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.

It was, in fact, Trump whose actions had just compromised national security. Given the chaos of the moment, though, it is not inconceivable that Pence might have been separated from the military aide during the evacuation. It is horrifying to speculate about this scenario because it is reasonable to envision exactly that might have happened.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters this week that he "would not get into discussion about specific command and control over nuclear strategic forces." But I will.

Of everything in the briefcase, the decision book is the most valuable to adversaries.

The worst-case scenario we can set aside: No one can use contents of the briefcase to launch anything. There is no button. There is no way to transmit an emergency war order without involving the Pentagon and a number of other command centers having authenticated the users identity and their status as the surviving commander in chief.

So what might have happened if the football was taken by the protesters? Well, they would have had to figure out how to get into it. It does not open easily. So after a while of fiddling, whether at the Capitol or somewhere else, lets assume an unauthorized user managed to pry it open. They would have found a satellite phone, a copy of the latest nuclear decision handbook and a few other classified documents and objects.

Of everything in the briefcase, the decision book is the most valuable to adversaries. It includes a Cheesecake-Factory-like picture menu of nuclear options that would allow an authorized user to order up massive or targeted strikes at a multitude of targets, along with annotations to show the effects of the chosen strikes, damage assessments, expected retaliation basically, all of our most sensitive war plans and their assumptions, laid out neatly for an average person to digest as quickly as possible.

Right before Trump sent the tweet castigating his vice president, he had spoken with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who said he told the president that Pence had been taken from the chamber. And we know Trump was watching television where Pence's emergency evacuation would have been hard to miss.

But if Trump had any question about Pences whereabouts, he could have asked a member of his own Secret Service detail. So closely are presidents and their vice presidents joined to the nuclear football that whenever they take an elevator, advance agents ensure the military aide and a doctor are in the same chamber as the protectee. Pences detail, along with its counterassault team, would have immediately broadcast their emergency action to the services Joint Operations Center, which would have just as quickly notified the presidents agents.

And the military aide would have notified the presidents Emergency Operations Center over a different frequency. Any unusual or unplanned movement of a presidential successor would be reported to the presidents chief of staff or the national security adviser as soon as possible.

In short, theres no way Trump could have been ignorant to the danger that Pence was in, no matter what his lawyers told the Senate. Nor should he have been unaware of the broader security risks.

The U.S. nuclear command, control and communication architecture is as robust or as fragile as the physical security around those who must engage with it, among many other factors. On Jan. 6, Trumps state of mind nearly let it all collapse.

Marc Ambinder is a senior fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Communication Leadership and Policy. A former White House correspondent and political reporter, he is the author of several books about national security, including The Brink: President Reagan and the Nuclear War Scare of 1983. He is a consultant for Spycraft Entertainment and lives in Los Angeles.

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Trump's actions during the Capitol riot put Pence in danger and national security at risk - MSNBC

Donald Trump likely knew of the danger facing Mike Pence when he attacked his vice president on Twitter during the Capitol riot, according to evidence that emerged during the former president's impeachment trial this week.

GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville told reporters on Wednesday that Trump had called him on January 6, and that he had told the president Pence had just been ushered out. Tuberville didn't specify the time of the call, but footage from the day showed Pence was taken from the Senate floor at 2:14 p.m.

"He didn't get a chance to say a whole lot because I said, 'Mr. President, they just took the vice president out. I've got to go,'" Tuberville said.

His remarks indicated that Trump was more aware of the danger posed to Pence than was previously known.

At Trump's impeachment trial on Wednesday, Democrats also showed video footage of Pence being escorted out of the Senate floor at 2:14 p.m. after rioters breached the Capitol.

Footage of Pence being taken to safety was also shown on live TV at the time, which Trump was watching, a source familiar with Trump's actions on the day told The Washington Post.

Another source told the publication that the White House was routinely briefed on Pence's movements by the Secret Service, and would likely have been aware of the danger he faced.

Yet at 2:24 p.m., Trump tweeted:"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution."

In footage played by impeachment managers Thursday, one rioter was shown reading Trump's tweet aloud and others were shown chanting "hang Mike Pence" as they searched the Capitol for the vice president.

A spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read more: Democrats are quietly cutting ties with megadonor Martin Elling, a fallen McKinsey & Company star embroiled in an opioid drug consulting scandal

The former president had been piling pressure on the vice president to refuse to certify Joe Biden's election victory, the usually routine congressional procedure that rioters abruptly halted when they attacked the Capitol.

Trump is accused by Democrats of doing little to quell the violence that erupted after his speech to supporters, and seeking instead to whip up their anger further.

Trump's attorneys are slated to present their defense of the former president on Friday.

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Trump most likely knew Pence's life was in danger when he tweeted an attack on his VP during the Capitol riot - Business Insider

Ivanka Trump reportedly urged her father, former President Donald Trump, to make peace with former Vice President Mike Pence after the deadly Capitol riots, sources familiar with the matter told the Washington Post.

A growing rift had emerged between the two leaders after Trump had publicly denounced Pence and encouraged a mob of his supporters to storm the Capitol and stop the vice president from verifying the election results.

Trump's daughter, Ivanka, who had been appointed a senior White House adviser by her father, sought to reconcile the two men and acted as go-between, encouraging her father to reach out to Pence, two people familiar with the planning said.

Five days after the January 6 insurrection, it was reported that Trump had met with the vice president in the Oval Office for the first time to address what had happened.

At the time, reports described the 90-minute-long meeting as "friendly" and stated that Pence wanted to focus on what he and Trump saw as the administration's wins.

But according to several people familiar with the encounter, the conversation was actually a lot more "stilted" and "uncomfortable," the Post reported.

Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who reportedly also helped arrange the meeting, later even jokingly compared it to his efforts at brokering peace in the Middle East, a person familiar with his comments told the Post.

Read more: How Trump's Senate trial could end with a vote to ban him from ever holding federal office again and kill any chances of a 2024 run

The report comes after this week's Senate impeachment trial, presented new evidence that showed Trump was more aware of the danger posed to Pence during the Capitol riots than was previously known.

It was also revealed that Trump never called Pence to make sure he was okay after the attack. Mark Short, Pence's chief of staff, who called Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, let them know they were okay.

During the trial on Wednesday, Democrats also showed Pence's video footage getting rushed to safety after rioters breached the Capitol building. In the video, a military aide, seen following Pence, is carrying a "nuclear football."

The relationship between Trump and Pence is unlikely ever entirely to heal, a source close to Pence told the Post. The two have only spoken once since President Joe Biden was inaugurated, the source added.

While the former vice president is said to be "frustrated" with what Trump did, he plans to remain loyal and not speak publicly about their relationship. According to this source, Pence also does not share the same anger that many former aides have toward Trump.

Pence plans on staying out of the spotlight for a few months, likely respecting the unofficial practice of giving a new administration some time and space.

Trump is currently facing an impeachment trial in the Senate for a charge of "incitement of insurrection" for his role in the January 6 Capitol attack.

Both the impeachment and defense teams have already completed their arguments, and Senators could vote as early as Saturday.

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Ivanka played peacemaker in Trump and Pence's 'uncomfortable' first meeting after Capitol riots, report says - Business Insider