According to the Washington Post's Philip Bump, in the waning days of the Donald Trump administration after the 2020 election was lost and the Senate prepared to certify the results, former vice president Mike Pence was one of a wide array of White House insiders hoping that Trump would accept his fate and leave quietly instead of creating the chaos that eventually broke out on Jan 6th.
Reacting to a report from the New York Times' Maggie Haberman, that Pence chief of staff Marc Short called in the head of the Pence's Secret Service detail to express fears that Pence might be in danger as Trump ramped up his criticism of him, the WaPo political analysts claimed it was just the last straw as tensions between the two grew and Trump refused to back down.
As Bump reports, "Mike Pence had been working for Donald Trump long enough by January 2021 to know how the pattern worked. Trump was up in arms about his presidential election loss, and those around him were busy either trying to contain the damage or leverage his fury, depending on their own personal priorities."
That, in turn, put Pence in the camp of those who once again were "hoping that Trump would fizzle out before he blew up."
RELATED: House Jan 6th hearings looking to be more devastating to Trump than his impeachments: columnist
According to Bump, "consider Pence in that moment. He knows how mad and frustrated Trump is. He hears Trump obsessing over the vice president’s purported abilities. He endures Trump pushing on it over and over again. And as Jan. 6 nears, that cajoling becomes public," adding that when Pence told Trump he couldn't go through with the plan to block certification, the former president raged at him, "No, no, no!" before adding, "You’ve betrayed us. I made you. You were nothing. Your career is over if you do this.”
The WaPo report notes that that was the day Short sat down with the Secret Service to convey his concerns -- although it is unclear whether they did anything about it as the NYT reported.
Detailing other events of the day, including Pence refusing to get in a Secret Service-supplied car, Bump wrote, "It is not a stretch to think Pence and his team, including Short and [legal counsel Keith] Kellogg, had discussed what they might expect in the aftermath of the vice president formally and publicly rejecting Trump’s ploy. That, as they were drafting that letter in the days before Jan. 6, they were making other plans, as well, discussing other bulwarks that needed to be built. Informing the Secret Service. Agreeing to stick with the process no matter what."
"If anyone in America understood the rhythms and furies of Donald Trump by Jan. 6, 2021, surely Mike Pence did," the WaPo analyst concluded.
You can read more here.
