Panel now sharpens focus on 'crazy' plan

The House committee investigating the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol on Thursday focused on then vice-president Mike Pence refusing to give in to pressure from Donald Trump to decertify the 2020 presidential election results.

The pressure Trump put on Pence, including at a Jan 6 rally in front of the White House, led directly to the insurrection at the Capitol, said the bipartisan panel during its third public hearing.

The committee said Trump's pressure on Pence was the central component of an illegal conspiracy to keep Trump in power, and it provided evidence that many of Trump's top advisers believed Pence could not legally reject electoral votes for Joe Biden.

"Donald Trump wanted Mike Pence to do something no other vice-president has ever done: The former president wanted Pence to reject the votes and either declare Trump the winner or send the votes back to the states to be counted again," committee chairman Bennie Thompson said.

"Mike Pence said no. He resisted the pressure. He knew it was illegal. He knew it was wrong."

Witnesses in live and taped testimony to the committee on Thursday characterized efforts to reject the slate of electors and overturn the election for Joe Biden as "nuts", "crazy" and even likely to incite riot.

Trump wanted Pence, who as president of the Senate was presiding over a joint session of Congress to count electoral votes on Jan 6, to reject or replace slates of electors.

'Within 40 feet'

The panel revealed how Trump put his vice-president in danger as Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress on Jan 6, 2021, when the defeated president sent his supporters to the Capitol to "fight like hell" over his false claims of a fraudulent election.

Rioters came within 40 feet (12 meters) of the place at the Capitol where Pence and others had been evacuated. Never-before-seen photos showed Pence and his team sheltering.

"He deserves to be burned with the rest of them," one rioter was heard saying on video as the mob prepared to storm the iconic building.

"Pence betrayed us," said another rioter, wearing a Make America Great Again hat in a selfie video inside the Capitol.

aiheping@chinadailyusa.com