And he [Eastman] looked at Mike Pence, and I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so. Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. . . . [T]his is from the number one, or certainly one of the top, Constitutional lawyers in our country. He has the absolute right to do it.[266]
President Trump repeatedly lied, claiming that several States wanted to overturn former Vice President Biden's victory:
States want to revote. The States got defrauded. They were given false information. They voted on it. Now they want to recertify. They want it back. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the States to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people.[267]
Contrary to the statement President Trump dictated the night before, he all but admitted that Vice President Pence did not agree with him:
And I actually, I just spoke to Mike. I said: "Mike, that doesn't take courage. What takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage." And then we're stuck with a president who lost the election by a lot and we have to live with that for four more years. We're just not going to let that happen.[268]Later in his speech at the Ellipse, President Trump repeated:
So, I hope Mike has the courage to do what he has to do. And I hope he doesn't listen to the RINOs and the stupid people that he's listening to.[269]
This was nothing less than a direct appeal to the large angry crowd to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to change his settled and oft-repeated conclusion about the limits of his authority. It was a shocking attempt to use public opinion to change the Vice President's position. President Trump launched a mob toward the Capitol with the false hope that there was a scenario in which Vice President Pence would do what Eastman and President Trump had asked him to do, preventing the transfer of authority to President-elect Biden.
VICE PRESIDENT PENCE FULFILLED HIS DUTY ON JANUARY 6TH
The Vice President Waited to Release His Statement Out of Deference to President Trump, Who Was Still Speaking on the Ellipse, and Ultimately Released It Just Minutes Before the Joint Session Convened at 1:00 p.m. President Trump's speech began late and ran long. He didn't finish speaking until approximately 1:10 p.m.—after the joint session had begun at 1:00 p.m. Minutes before he gaveled the joint session into order, Vice President Mike Pence released the "Dear Colleague" letter he had been working on for days with
