On the pivotal day of January 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump, in a desperate attempt to reverse his electoral defeat, reportedly warned then-Vice President Mike Pence that his adherence to constitutional duty and subsequent certification of the election results would spell the end of his political career. This account comes from a witness privy to part of the conversation.
The witness, a White House valet who spent most of the day in Trump’s company, relayed the details of the phone call to the House committee that was investigating the January 6 insurrection before it was disbanded in early 2023. The valet could only recount Trump’s side of the conversation, but his account paints a picture of an outgoing president issuing a direct threat to his vice president. “Mike, this is a political career killer if you do this,” Trump is reported to have said. “Do what’s right.”
The transcript of the valet’s testimony was initially obtained by the New York Times, but was not made public by the January 6 committee before its dissolution. However, House Republicans released it on the following Friday. The valet’s identity remains undisclosed.
The phone call between Trump and Pence was their final interaction before Trump’s inflammatory speech at the Ellipse, where he urged thousands of his fervent supporters to march to the US Capitol and “fight like hell” to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 election results. Pence was set to preside over this joint session.
The valet informed lawmakers that he did not hear what Trump was referring to when he told Pence not to “do this.” However, the context suggests that Trump was making a final attempt to persuade Pence to overturn the results by rejecting Democratic electors and seating Republican ones instead during the joint session.
Prior to this call, Pence and his top advisers had consistently informed Trump that there was no legal basis for interfering with the electoral vote count and that such an action would contravene the Constitution. In a letter to lawmakers on January 6, Pence stated that what Trump was asking of him was “entirely antithetical” to “our Constitution, our laws, and our history.”
Pence’s letter to lawmakers refuted Trump’s theories, stating, “I do not believe that the Founders of our country intended to invest the Vice President with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the Joint Session of Congress, and no Vice President in American history has ever asserted such authority.”
Trump’s threat to Pence materialized. Pence announced his candidacy for the 2024 GOP nomination in June but failed to gain popularity among the Trump-supporting Republican base. He withdrew from the race in October and declared last week that he would not endorse Trump.