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Transcript/ScriptJANUARY 6 INVESTIGATION – DAY 3 (TV)
HEADLINE: False Theory Fueled Trump Pressure Campaign on Pence
TEASER: Vice president was only 40 feet away from rioters on January 6
PUBLISHED AT: 06/16/2022 at 11:06 pm
BYLINE: Katherine Gypson
PRODUCERS: Katherine Gypson,
DATELINE: Washington
VIDEOGRAPHER:
SCRIPT EDITORS: Holly Franko, DJ OK, Jepsen
VIDEO SOURCE (S): AP, ABC, Pool
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO __
TRT: 3:45
VID APPROVED BY: wpm
TYPE: TVPKG
UPDATE: ))
((TV/web intro: ))
[[In the third day of congressional hearings on the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, U.S. lawmakers alleged former President Donald Trump waged a multiweek pressure campaign on his vice president, Mike Pence, to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.]]
((NARRATOR))
New details showing the danger to Vice President Mike Pence’s life on January 6, 2021 – rioters just 40 feet away from Pence after he refused former President Donald Trump’s baseless demand to overturn the 2020 election results.
Pence’s advisers described how Trump pushed conservative attorney John Eastman’s false theory that a U.S. vice president can reject or delay election results.
((Eric Herschmann, Former White House Lawyer))
"It made no sense to me that in all the protections that were built into the Constitution for a president to get elected and steps that had to be taken, that the power to choose the next president would be sitting with the vice president."
((NARRATOR))
Pence’s advisers told the vice president he did not have that power and warned of the consequences.
((Judge J. Michael Luttig, Pence Adviser))
“That declaration of Donald Trump as the next president would have plunged America into what I believe would have been tantamount to a revolution within a constitutional crisis.”
((NARRATOR))
Almost all congressional Republicans have called the committee’s investigation illegitimate, but committee member Liz Cheney said Trump knew what he was doing was wrong.
((Rep. Liz Cheney, Republican))
“Trump was told repeatedly that Pence lacked the constitutional and legal authority to do what he was demanding he do.”
((NARRATOR))
Former White House advisers testified Pence rejected Trump’s demands in the weeks leading up to the January 6 certification of electoral results.
((Rep. Pete Aguilar, Democrat))
“Despite the fact that the vice president consistently told the president that he did not have and would not want the power to decide the outcome of the presidential election, Donald Trump continued to pressure the vice president, both publicly and privately.”
((NARRATOR))
Pressure that culminated in Trump’s tweet on the afternoon of January 6 criticizing Pence – a move investigators say inflamed the president’s supporters, encouraging them to storm the U.S. Capitol …
The rioters just missed finding Pence, who insisted on remaining in the Capitol to certify the election for Joe Biden.
((Greg Jacob, Pence Counsel))
"The vice president did not want to take any chance that the world would see the vice president of the United States fleeing the United States Capitol. He was determined that we would complete the work that we had set out to do that day.”
((NARRATOR))
The U.S. came very close to a coup, investigators said, and one of Pence’s advisers had a warning about Trump and his supporters.
((Judge J. Michael Luttig, Pence Adviser))
“They would attempt to overturn that 2024 election in the same way that they attempted to overturn the 2020 election but succeed in 2024 where they failed in 2020. I don't speak those words lightly.”
((NARRATOR))
The committee will continue its work next week with public hearings on Tuesday and Thursday.
((Katherine Gypson, VOA News, Washington))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)Washington D.C.
Embargo DateJune 16, 2022 21:43 EDT
Byline((Katherine Gypson, VOA News, Washington))
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
