Senate Television via AP
- CNN reported that during the four-hour siege by rioters at the Capitol, President Donald Trump did not check on Mike Pence and his family, who were on lockdown.
- The report also described a tense meeting at the White House before the certification process, where Pence’s chief of staff was not allowed in the West Wing as Pence was pressured to reject the election results.
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On Thursday, the day after a riotous mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as Vice President Mike Pence and his family were sheltering inside, Mike Pence’s daughter Charlotte Pence Bond congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Twitter.
“Congratulations to President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris,” Pence bond tweeted.
Pence Bond, alongside her mother Karen Pence and Mike Pence’s brother Rep. Greg Pence, were attending the certification ceremony when the Capitol was stormed by an angry mob of Trump supporters and members inside the chamber were forced into lockdown.
But President Donald Trump did little to check on Vice President Mike Pence and members of his family as they were stuck in the Capitol during yesterday’s attempted insurrection, according to CNN.
During the formal counting of electoral votes, which Pence was presiding over, armed insurrectionists breached the Capitol, following a rally featuring President Donald Trump, who complained about Pence during his 70-minute speech.
Once rioters made it inside, lawmakers were locked down inside the Capitol for four hours until law enforcement secured the area and the session eventually resumed.
While locked down alongside his family members, a source close to Mike Pence told CNN that the vice president was frightened as the mob paraded the halls of congress shouting, “where’s Mike Pence?”
“Was he concerned at all that an angry mob that he commanded to march on the Capitol might injure the vice president or his family?” the source close to Mike Pence told CNN.
Wednesday also solidified a fundamental, bubbling rift between Trump and Pence, as Pence ultimately rejected Trump’s wishes to jeopardize President-elect Joe Biden’s certification.
CNN reported that prior to the session in the Senate, Pence was heavily pressured at the White House by Trump in an hours-long meeting to reject the election results.
“The message was pretty clear,” the source told CNN, adding that Pence was warned with “thinly veiled threats,” about the political consequences for his refusal to endorse Trump’s attempted coup.
The report added that Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, was banned from entering the West Wing during the tense meeting.
“Rudy, Meadows, and their teams have been trying to set up the vice president to take the fall as opposed to admitting they laid out false hope in all of this,” the source told CNN. “Trump just can’t admit defeat and wants a scapegoat.”
Later, the report added, Trump did not check up on the Vice President and his family as the siege was underway.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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