In a call to then-Vice President Mike Pence on the morning of January 6, then-President Donald Trump said he wasn’t “tough enough” to overturn the election, and called him a “wimp”, according to witness testimony gathered by the House Select Committee investigating the 2021 Capitol attack.
A former counsel to Mr Pence, attorney Greg Jacob, told the committee on Thursday that Mr Pence received the call at the Vice President’s residence on the morning of January 6.
House Panel member Rep. Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat, said that members of the Trump family were present in the Oval Office during the call with Pence, adding that they as well as others spoke to the committee about the conversation.
Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump told the committee in prerecorded testimony that it “wasn’t a specific, formal discussion, it was very loose and casual”.
“The conversation was pretty heated,” Ms Trump added.
Former Trump assistant Nicholas Luna told the committee: “I remember hearing the word ‘wimp’”.
“Either he called him a wimp, I don’t remember, he said ‘you are a wimp, you’ll be a wimp’ – wimp is the word I remember,” Mr Luna added.
General Keith Kellogg, a former national security advisor to Mr Pence, told the panel that Mr Trump told Mr Pence “you’re not tough enough to make the call”.
Ms Trump said, “it was a different tone than I’d heard him take with the vice president before”.
Julie Radford, a former chief of staff to Ms Trump said she told her that “her dad had just had an upsetting conversation with the vice president”.
Ms Radford said Ms Trump said her father called Mr Pence “the P-word”.
Mr Jacob said that when Mr Pence returned to his staff after the call, he appeared “steely, determined, grim”.
