After months of lying about the validity of the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump publicly pressured his Vice President, Mike Pence, to overturn then-President-elect Joe Biden's victory.
Ahead of a President's inauguration, the Vice President oversees a joint session of Congress where the body acknowledges the validity of each state's certified electoral votes. While lawmakers can object to a state's electoral votes—sending each of the two chambers to separately vote on whether to count them—Trump falsely insisted that Pence could unilaterally throw out electoral votes of swing states Trump lost.
In reality, the Vice President's powers during this joint session are purely administrative.
Pence reached this same conclusion, writing in a letter to Congress on January 6, the day of the joint session:
"It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not."
The letter was released as Trump appeared at a nearby rally outside the White House, where he told his supporters he hoped Pence would do "the right thing" before instructing them to walk to the Capitol and make their opposition known. Of course, the mob of pro-Trump extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol, upending the joint session and calling to "Hang Mike Pence!"
Now a new book from journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril, shed further light on Trump's pressure campaign against his own Vice President to seize power despite losing the election.
Urging Pence to throw out certified electoral votes, Trump said:
"I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this."
The sophomoric ultimatum caught the mockery of Twitter.
I swear to God, fictional writers of the Trump Show: The TV Series couldn\u2019t come up with fictional lines like this:https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1437808960636076041\u00a0\u2026— Mehdi Hasan (@Mehdi Hasan) 1631670126
I\u2019m sorry but this is objectively extremely funnyhttps://twitter.com/samstein/status/1437808960636076041\u00a0\u2026— Ej Dickson (@Ej Dickson) 1631672207
this is very regina george of him, I relatehttps://twitter.com/samstein/status/1437808960636076041\u00a0\u2026— Sydney Leathers (@Sydney Leathers) 1631680487
"And you can't play with my Transformers no more neither!"https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1437808960636076041\u00a0\u2026— Kevin M. Kruse (@Kevin M. Kruse) 1631637156
Trump added, \u201cand I won\u2019t invite you to my birthday party or play with you at recess\u201dhttps://twitter.com/samstein/status/1437808960636076041\u00a0\u2026— Michael Cohen (@Michael Cohen) 1631639546
Seeing lots of mocking but I don't want to hear it if you're not ready to step into high level negotiations like these in an INSTANT. What are you gonna do when someone has a snack cake and your mom packed you apples? You have to be ready to GO, no hesitations, that's leadershiphttps://twitter.com/samstein/status/1437808960636076041\u00a0\u2026— maura quint (@maura quint) 1631636707
Others found the plea downright sad.
Just like a child who "takes his friendship away "anytime he quarrels with a friend. What a president. Sadhttps://twitter.com/samstein/status/1437808960636076041\u00a0\u2026— Chrisoshoke (@Chrisoshoke) 1631669224
What a sad, small old man he is.https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1437808960636076041\u00a0\u2026— JAKoppel (@JAKoppel) 1631651736
SOOO sad!https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1437808960636076041\u00a0\u2026— Spomenka Djordjevic (@Spomenka Djordjevic) 1631658150
Peril was written after hundreds of interviews with Trump administration officials regarding the former President's last weeks in office.
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