Donald Trump asked his then-Vice President Mike Pence if he was scared during the Capitol riot at a meeting just five days after the violence in which some Trump supporters built a gallows and chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” Pence wrote in his new memoir.
Trump “looked tired, and his voice seemed fainter than usual” during their conversation on Jan. 11, 2021, Pence wrote in an adapted excerpt from “So Help Me God” that The Wall Street Journal published on Wednesday.
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Trump asked about Pence, then-second lady Karen Pence and their daughter Charlotte Pence.
“I replied tersely that we were fine and told him that they had been at the Capitol on Jan. 6. He responded with a hint of regret, ‘I just learned that,’” Pence recalled in the book out Tuesday.
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Trump then asked Pence if he’d been scared as the riot unfolded.
Pence, who was scorned by Trump and his supporters for certifying President Joe Biden’s victory, said he hadn’t been scared — but was angry.
He said he told Trump: “You and I had our differences that day, Mr. President, and seeing those people tearing up the Capitol infuriated me.’”
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Trump “started to bring up the election, saying that people were angry, but his voice trailed off,” wrote Pence. “I told him he had to set that aside, and he responded quietly, ‘Yeah.’”
“With genuine sadness in his voice, the president mused: ‘What if we hadn’t had the rally? What if they hadn’t gone to the Capitol?’ Then he said, ‘It’s too terrible to end like this,’” Pence added.