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He also made a second, subtler, but no less significant change to the script on Jan. 6, 2021, according to newly released documents and testimony. This previously unreported adjustment, further illustrating his pushback to the Trump-led gambit, involved a simple question that he asked each time a states electoral vote results were introduced: Are there any objections?

What sounded like boilerplate lingo actually served as an intentional emphasis by Pence on the federal law that lets members of Congress challenge presidential results the exact element of certification that Trump and attorney John Eastman sought to undercut.

Pences job that day was to oversee the counting of electoral votes before a joint session of Congress. The Constitution and the Electoral Count Act, the federal law thats governed the Electoral College process since 1887, required that Pence lead the crucial meeting of the House and Senate in his capacity as vice president.

During the lengthy session, which was interrupted for hours by a violent mob attack, Pence punctuated every states electoral votes with a question to lawmakers: Are there any objections? No vice president had added those words since Al Gore presided over his own defeat in 2001. Notably, Gore was the only one to have done it since at least 1937.

Pence embraced the long-dormant rhetoric in part as a rebuttal to Eastman, a close Trump ally, Pences counsel Greg Jacob told congressional investigators.

According to Jacobs testimony, as well as contemporaneous emails released by the Jan. 6 select committee, Eastman had spent several days before Jan. 6, 2021, pushing Pence and Jacob to embrace a fringe legal theory: That Pence could simply refuse to count some of Joe Bidens presidential electors. When it became clear that Pence would not go along, Eastman fell back on another proposal. Pence, he said, should declare the election in dispute and recess the session for 10 days, giving Republican-led state legislatures a chance to appoint new electors. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) assembled 10 GOP colleagues to embrace a similar push.

Mike Pences decision to craft and employ his own unprecedented language as he presided over the final step of the 2020 election reflected his resistance to a pressure campaign by then-President Donald Trump to subvert the process.

But Jacob pushed back, arguing that sending the election to the states to select new electors would violate the Electoral Count Acts provisions giving federal lawmakers the chance to decide which ones to count. In no previous election, he noted, even in ones with some disputed states, had Congress sought the input of state legislators to resolve disputes.

The Electoral Count Act, Jacob noted, says the vice president shall call for objections after each state, and Pence made the decision to explicitly add those calls to articulate his disagreement with Eastmans theory.

Jacob told the select committee last month that he debated this point with Eastman in the days before Jan. 6.

The Electoral Count Act says: You shall call for objections, Jacob told the committee. [T]he shalls were important to us, which was one of the reasons we had made sure that the transcript or the scripts for Jan. 6 had the call for objections because that was one of the things that the statute specifically required.

Matthew Seligman, an election law expert and Yale University fellow, said Pences decision to revive the objection language was prudent because for the first time in the statutes history, the ECAs procedures were under assault.

Prior vice presidents may not have felt the need to explicitly say out loud that members of Congress could object, Seligman said.

Out of every Electoral College session since 1937 the first one after the 20th Amendment moved the presidential inauguration from March to January Gore and Pence were the only vice presidents to call for objections after each state, according to a review of the Congressional Record.

Emails released by the select committee showed that Eastman and Jacob continued to debate the validity of congressional objections deep into the morning of Jan. 6. Jacob eventually accused Eastman of supporting made up legal theories that would never hold up in court, an exchange that grew heated as the pro-Trump mob closed in on the Capitol.

Pence had foreshadowed his plan to call for objections during public remarks meant to rally Trump supporters in the days before Jan. 6. While Trump was increasingly dialing up pressure on Pence, the then-vice president heartened Trump allies by assuring them that Well have our day in Congress. Well hear the objections.

Republican lawmakers aligned with Trump had worked on a plan to challenge the electors from a handful of states. The insurrection disrupted the proceedings just as an objection to Arizonas electors was being debated, and after the riot was contained, only one other challenge to Pennsylvanias electors was advanced for debate.

Before that day, Pence had strenuously avoided tipping his hand publicly about whether he would embrace any of Eastmans extreme proposals, though hed signaled it within the White House. He made his intentions public in a letter he issued moments before the Jan. 6 session began, in which he repeatedly referenced his plan to call for objections.

As presiding officer, I will ensure that any objections that are sponsored by both a Representative and a Senator are given proper consideration, and that all facts supporting those objections are brought before the Congress and the American people, Pence said. Those who suggest that raising objections under the Electoral Count Act is improper or undemocratic ignore more than 130 years of history.

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Another Jan. 6 mystery revealed: Pence's second script rewrite - POLITICO

Facilitating the loosening of former President TrumpDonald TrumpGOP talking point could turn to Biden's 'underwhelming' Russia response House Oversight Committee opens investigation into New Mexico 2020 election audit Hunter Biden paid off tax liability amid ongoing grand jury investigation: report MOREs iron grip on the Republican Party are cumulative sets of actions and statements emanating from spheres of GOP influence. Meanwhile, elected leaders fear of Trump backlash and name-calling is diminishing signaling the post-Trump era has begun. Trumps unraveling is akin to a decline by 1,000 cuts. Lets examine it.

The players are prospective 2024 presidential candidates, officeholders, the Republican National Committee (RNC), former high-ranking Trump officials, a conservative think tank and a mega-donor kingmaker who owns a jet.

We begin on March 4 at the RNCs major donor retreat in New Orleans, attended by former Vice President Mike PenceMichael (Mike) Richard PenceThe post-Trump era has begun The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - What now after Zelensky's speech? The Hill's Campaign Report: Democrats look for a reset MORE. His appearance proves that Trump could not prevent Pence from addressing this high-roller crowd. Indirectly, Pence spoke critically of Trump, saying, "There is no room in this party for apologists for PutinVladimir Vladimirovich PutinRepublican senators introduce bill to ban Russian uranium imports Hillicon Valley Invasion complicates social media policy Defense & National Security Blinken details Russia's possible next steps MORE. There is only room for champions of freedom." Pence boldly countered Trumps earlier praise of the Russian dictator he infamously called savvy and a genius in the war's opening days.

Upon leaving the RNC, Pence felt confident because he was embarking on a secret, potentially game-changing trip that could challenge Trumps supremacy.

On March 5, Trump also spoke at the retreat, generating news that will long be re-quoted. He joked that the U.S. should "put the Chinese flag" on F-22 fighter jets and "bomb the shit" out of Russia. You can imagine the audience gasping.

Later that Saturday night (but not reported until March 9),Trump was heading home aboard an unnamed donors plane when engine failure forced an emergency landing. The harrowing incident unleashed several news cycles of Trump plane drama.

Suspiciously starting on March 9, Trump supporters received an email solicitation titled "Update: Trump Force One."It stated, "My team is building a BRAND NEW Trump Force One," which appeared to be seeking donations.

Then watch Trumps airspace since he has lost altitude with that previously mentioned mega-donor kingmaker who owns a jet. Ironically (also first reported on March 9), Mike Pence had boarded the kingmakers jet bound for Israel and later the Ukraine-Poland border.

Here is why Pences trip could be perceived as a flashing red signal that the post-Trump era has begun. The plane is owned by Miriam Adelson widow of Sheldon Adelson a GOP donor extraordinaire who died in January 2021. Mr. Adelson was a casino empire multibillionaire, a personal friend of Donald Trump and the force behind the American Embassy in Israel moving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018. By the way, reportedly, the Adelsons contributed $220 million to the Republican Party during the 2020 election cycle.

Continuing her husbands legacy, earning Miriam Adelsons support is the political equivalent of winning the Mega Millions lottery. Is Mike Pence the 2024 lottery winner? Watch his airspace.

While in Israel, Mrs. Adelson, Pence and wife Karen prayed over Sheldons grave and dined with former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuBenjamin (Bibi) NetanyahuMORE. Then the Pences joined Samaritan's Purses refugee relief mission at the Ukraine-Poland border.

Beyond Miriam Adelsons financial resources, her support for Pence signals that Trump may not be a viable 2024 candidate, and that it may be time to move on.

Years earlier, Trump had been Adelsons golden boy. On March 13, 2016, a Hill headline read, Gingrich: Adelson signal is big for Trump. After Sheldon Adelson publicly endorsed Trump, the signal was that Trump had entered the Republican mainstream worthy of support by GOP elites. Former House Speaker Newt GingrichNewton (Newt) Leroy GingrichMORE (R-Ga.), an early Trump supporter, disseminated the signal. (Note: In 2012, Adelson contributed $20 million to keep Gingrichs presidential campaign afloat.)

Although Pence was aboard Miriam Adelsons plane and is likely a contributor to Pences advocacy groups recent $10 million ad buy against House Democrats Mrs. Adelson alone can not usher in the post-Trump era.

Suffice it to say, the Russia-Ukraine war has weakened Trump with self-inflicted wound-like statements and his previous anti-NATO stance while emboldening GOP leaders to denounce the twice-impeached former president. Then, on cue, a name-calling bombshell dropped on Saturday night after a Trump rally in South Carolina.

Continuing his feud with Trump, Rep.Tom Rice(R-S.C.) called the former president a would-be tyrant. At the rally, Trump was harder on President BidenJoe BidenRepublican senators introduce bill to ban Russian uranium imports Energy & Environment Ruling blocking climate accounting metric halted Fauci says officials need more than .5B for COVID-19 response MORE than on Putin. Trumps harshest words for the ruthless dictator were, Hes driven to put it together. It [the invasion] shouldve never of happened if he respected our president.

Also from the House was the recent headline, McCarthy breaks with Trump on Putin: Russian leader not 'savvy,' 'genius.' That was uncharacteristically anti-Trump criticism from House Minority LeaderKevin McCarthyKevin McCarthyHouse eyes advantages of proxy voting beyond pandemic The post-Trump era has begun Zelensky challenges conscience of Congress MORE (R-Calif.). Usually, he courts and counts on Trumps support (dreaming of his future title House Speaker McCarthy should the GOP win control of the House in the midterm elections).

In another cut, Trumps social media app Truth Social is underperforming and off to a rocky start even Trump is not an active user.

And like sharks smelling blood while circling the waters of Mar-a-Lago, there are an increasing number of 2024 anti-Trump presidential candidates who are envisioning a primary challenge. Furthermore, many highly touted Trump-endorsed primary candidates are struggling with fundraising and momentum.

Then last week, in what was a blatant Trump snub, the prestigious conservative American Enterprise Institute did not invite him to its annual World Forum attended by other GOP leaders.

And dont forget the blow-up with his former Attorney General William BarrBill BarrThe post-Trump era has begun Democrats urge DOJ to address 'insider threats' from candidates who deny 2020 results Barr says dealing with Trump, advisers like 'wrestling an alligator' MORE, prompting Trump to send a childish name-calling letter to NBC's Lester Holt after Holt interviewed Barr. The letter is a window into Trumps mindset.

Besides all the cuts, the most severe knife wounds could result from various legal actions pending in New York and Georgia. Most watched will be the House Jan. 6 committees conclusions and ultimately whether Attorney General Merrick GarlandMerrick GarlandGOP senators seek probe of 'egregious' conditions at NJ nursing home The post-Trump era has begun Biden signs reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act MORE indicts Trump for criminal conspiracy or defangs the politically explosive matter.

The post-Trump era has been born (though Donald still rocks the cradle).

Myra Adams writes about politics and religion for numerous publications. She is a RealClearPolitics contributorand served on the creative team of two GOP presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008. Follow her on Twitter @MyraKAdams.

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The post-Trump era has begun | TheHill - The Hill

And Pences choice started off like his predecessors and would have sounded like parliamentary jargon to most people watching the session on Jan. 6, 2021: Vice presidents begin the counting of electoral votes by indicating that votes will be counted after ascertaining that the certificates are regular in form and authentic. But Pence added another line to this explanation that the preceding vice presidents did not.

Not only would each certificate he introduced be regular in form and authentic, he said at the time, but they would be the ones that the parliamentarians have advised me is the only certificate of vote from that state, and purports to be a return from the state, and that has annexed to it a certificate from an authority of that state purporting to appoint or ascertain electors.

It was a mouthful with a purpose. Pence was incorporating the specific legal language of the Electoral Count Act the 1887 law that, along with the 12th Amendment, governs the counting of electoral votes. The law requires that any electoral votes counted by Congress be submitted by official state authorities, like governors and secretaries of state.

The Jan. 6 select committee has been keenly interested in the mystery of Pences added words, too. The panels top investigator, Tim Heaphy, earlier this year asked Short about Pences decision to change the language and even played a video clip comparing Pences remarks to those of previous vice presidents, according to a partial transcript of Shorts testimony to the committee that was released in court filings last week.

So, obviously, Vice President Pence in 2021 alters, amplifies, adds language to the script that had been read by Vice Presidents reaching back 20 or 30 years, Heaphy said. Tell us about the decision, the purposeful decision by Vice President Pence to add that language to the ascertainment script.

[T]he predominant reason was that the Vice President wanted to be as transparent as possible, Short replied. But the transcript was curtailed mid-sentence.

Short explained in an interview that the added words were designed to clearly address Pences views of Trump allies push for false slates of presidential electors. Supporters of the then-president would be wondering why Pence refused to consider those slates during the Jan. 6 session.

Another source familiar with discussions among the then-vice president and his allies in those days said Pences decision to revise the wording had another audience: Members of Congress aligned with Trump who also espoused the view that Pence could introduce alternate electors. Pence, the source said, intended to preempt potential points of order or other procedural challenges those members might have made by laying out his thinking.

Indeed, top Trump allies like Stephen Miller and John Eastman pointed to these alternate electors as a way to keep the former presidents election challenge alive. Eastman built them into his last-ditch strategy to pressure Pence to overturn the election himself.

So the language Pence used had to explain his rationale for saying no.

The former vice president hasnt stopped subtly critiquing Trump in the year since he resisted the election subversion push. Pence told donors last week that there is no room in this party for apologists for Putin, viewed as a deliberate if delicate reference to Trump. Pence also recently declared that Trump was wrong for claiming he could unilaterally determine the outcome of the election.

The select committee is continuing to probe the involvement of Trump and his network in the submission of false elector slates to Congress in late 2020.

Under the Electoral Count Act, electors picked by the party of the winning candidate in each state are required to meet in mid-December to formally cast their ballots. In seven states won by Biden, however, the Trump campaign worked with state Republican parties to assemble their own elector meetings and cast ballots for Trump. Those false electors then signed certificates and mailed them to Washington.

Eastman urged Pence to introduce the dual slates on Jan. 6 and claim the outcome was in dispute. Then, per Eastman, Pence could adjourn the legally required session of Congress and urge state legislatures to resolve the so-called disputes, even though the Electoral Count Act prohibits adjournments during the count.

Pences counsel Jacob also testified to the Jan. 6 select committee; a partial transcript of his comments filed in federal court described Eastmans repeated efforts to convince Pence to introduce the alternate elector slates. Those comments formed the core of the select committees recent suggestion that it believes Eastman may have criminally conspired to obstruct Congress certification of the 2020 election.

Eastman has rejected that assertion, claiming he thought his efforts had a legitimate legal basis. Hes fighting to shield some of his emails from the select committee by claiming attorney-client privilege.

When Pence refused to entertain the alternate electors during Congress session certifying Biden as the next president, Trump supporters encroaching on the Capitol became furious. Within an hour, hundreds had breached the building, with some chanting hang Mike Pence.

Amid the chaos, Eastman exchanged tense emails with Jacob. Pences counsel accused Eastman, in one remarkably blunt missive, of being a serpent in the ear of the president of the United States.

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How Pence used 43 words to shut down Trump allies' election subversion on Jan. 6 - POLITICO

The joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021, reconvenes after insurrectionists interrupted it. Photo: Erin Schaff/UPI/Shutterstock

On the chaotic day of January 6, 2021, it was not really clear what Donald Trump and his allies were trying to accomplish in challenging the confirmation of Joe Bidens election in Congress, even as Trump incited a mob of his followers to assault the Capitol in the middle of those proceedings.

It was well known at the time (mostly because the vice-president released a statement about it that very day) that Mike Pence had rejected big-time pressure from Trump to use his position as the presiding officer of the joint session of Congress to deny Biden his victory and/or declare Trump the winner. But its only become clearer that disrupting Bidens confirmation via Pence wasnt just an outlandish idea quickly laid to rest it was Plan A. Trump hadnt given up on the gambit even as the fateful hour arrived. If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election, the president told his supporters just before they headed to the Capitol.

Weve learned a lot in the intervening year about the days just prior to January 6 and what the various players in the drama were thinking. Not all claims about Trumps strategy are terribly credible. (See former Trump staffer Peter Navarros recent assertions about the Green Bay sweep, a scheme he cooked up with Steve Bannon to delay certification of Bidens win, which makes zero sense because of the Democratic control of Congress.) But we now know that behind the scenes the White House kept lobbying Pence to derail Bidens confirmation up to the last minute, and Pence continued waffling, asking various advisers if there might be a way to succor the Boss without arrogating unconstitutional or illegal powers to himself.

The breadth and persistence of Trumps reliance on Pence for salvation was made most evident by the famous Eastman memo, which first surfaced publicly in a book by Washington Post reporters in September 2021. The final version of this memo, clearly addressed to Pence, was dated January 3. It is indisputable that Trump approved of Eastmans strategy, whose language and (such as it was) logic was echoed by the president on January 6.

Though Eastman laid out multiple scenarios for a Pence coup on January 6, all of them were based on an eccentric constitutional theory holding that the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which sets out procedures for the finalization of states electoral-vote counts, was an unconstitutional abrogation of the vice-presidents all-but-sovereign power under the 12th Amendment to decide which electors to recognize and count. The memo devotes a lot of space to giving Pence specious reasons to reject Biden electors from six states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). Most crucially, Eastman offered Pence the choice of recognizing self-designated Trump electors from those states (definitely a reach) or just refusing to recognize any electors. The latter scenario could have produced a Trump victory on grounds that he won a majority of the recognized electors or thrown the election to the House on grounds that the Electoral College had failed to reach a decision.

Eastman also presented a cop-out option, to adjourn the joint session and throw the matter back to the states, which might have become more tempting to Pence as the events of January 6 unfolded:

VP Pence determines that the ongoing election challenges must conclude before ballots can be counted, and adjourns the joint session of Congress, determining that the time restrictions in the Electoral County [sic] Act are contrary to his authority under the 12th Amendment and therefore void. Taking the cue, state legislatures convene, order a comprehensive audit/investigation of the election returns in their states, and then determine whether the slate of electors initially certified is valid, or whether the alternative slate of electors should be certified by the legislature.

This scenario is clearly what Trump had in mind when he said this to the mob on January 6:

States want to revote. The states got defrauded. They were given false information. They voted on it. Now they want to recertify. They want it back. All Vice-President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people.

And I actually, I just spoke to Mike. I said: Mike, that doesnt take courage. What takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage.

So we have it straight from the horses mouth that on January 6 he was still urging Pence to do nothing and send it back to the states before Bidens victory could be confirmed, sweeping aside the timetable set out in the Electoral Count Act. As Eastman cynically noted, had Pence just gaveled the session adjourned, it might have left no immediate recourse for Congress:

The main thing here is that VP Pence should exercise his 12th Amendment authority without asking for permission either from a vote of the joint session or from the Court. Let the other side challenge his actions in court.

It seems Pence may have still been wavering immediately before the joint session because his team consulted revered conservative legal authority Michael Luttig (for whom Eastman had once clerked) on the morning of January 6. Fortunately, Luttig rejected Eastmans take on the 12th Amendment powers of the veep, and his views were incorporated into Pences statement just before the session began.

Patriotic legal thinkers and policy-makers who want to keep this nightmare scenario from recurring might want to spend some time burying Eastmans veep as God construction of the 12th Amendment lest it rise again in 2024 or beyond. Legal scholar Matthew Seligman poured multiple shovels of dirt on it in an October 21, 2021, academic treatise debunking the whole outrageously dangerous notion. As he told me in an email: The absurd theory that the Vice President has this monarchical power to decide the election has to be so widely and decisively rejected that no one within earshot of the Oval Office would dare utter it in the future.The final moment of truth shouldnot come down to the conscience of a person who was told he had the power to install himself in office.

But in the heat of the moment on January 6, after Team Trumps many legal and political efforts to forestall his defeat had failed, swaying the famously sycophantic Mike Pence remained the only real play. They had run out of time to do anything else. And while this is speculative, it strikes me as likely that one of Trumps chief motives in sending the mob toward the Capitol on January 6 was to put a final burst of pressure on Pence to do the right thing, perhaps by creating so much chaos in the electoral-vote-count process that an adjournment might seem reasonable.

In the end, Pence would not go along, leaving to the judgment of history whether he should be regarded as a great hero for rejecting pressure to execute an election coup or more of an ambiguous figure thanks to his previous loyalty to a scofflaw president. There was certainly every reason for Trump to hope against hope that Pence could at least be counted on to throw some sand in the gears of the process leading to Joe Bidens inauguration on January 20. And that might be enough to constitute a strategy for a seat-of-the-pants presidency built on Donald Trumps narcissism and the willingness of subordinates to tell him what he wanted to hear at any cost.

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Trumps January 6 Strategy Was All About Mike Pence

In the Oval Office last week, the day before the vote, Mr. Trump pushed Mr. Pence in a string of encounters, including one meeting that lasted at least an hour. John Eastman, a conservative constitutional scholar at Chapman University, was in the office and argued to Mr. Pence that he did have the power to act.

The next morning, hours before the vote, Richard Cullen, Mr. Pences personal lawyer, called J. Michael Luttig, a former appeals court judge revered by conservatives and for whom Mr. Eastman had once clerked. Mr. Luttig agreed to quickly write up his opinion that the vice president had no power to change the outcome, then posted it on Twitter.

Within minutes, Mr. Pences staff incorporated Mr. Luttigs reasoning, citing him by name, into a letter announcing the vice presidents decision not to try to block electors. Reached on Tuesday, Mr. Luttig said it was the highest honor of my life to play a role in preserving the Constitution.

After the angry call cursing Mr. Pence, Mr. Trump riled up supporters at the rally against his own vice president, saying, I hope he doesnt listen to the RINOs and the stupid people that hes listening to.

He set Mike Pence up that day by putting it on his shoulders, said Ryan Streeter, an adviser to Mr. Pence when he was the governor of Indiana. Thats a pretty unprecedented thing in American politics. For a president to throw his own vice president under the bus like that and to encourage his supporters to take him on is something just unconscionable in my mind.

Mr. Pence was already in his motorcade to the Capitol by that point. When the mob burst into the building, Secret Service agents evacuated him and his wife and children, first to his office off the floor and later to the basement. His agents urged him to leave the building, but he refused to abandon the Capitol. From there, he spoke with congressional leaders, the defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff but not the president.

A Republican senator later said he had never seen Mr. Pence so angry, feeling betrayed by a president for whom he had done so much. To Mr. Trump, one adviser said, the vice president had entered Sessions territory, referring to Jeff Sessions, the attorney general who was tortured by the president before being fired. (A vice president cannot be dismissed by a president.)

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Mike Pence Reached His Limit With Trump. It Wasnt Pretty ...