Like a dog sniffing for the remnants of the few bits of bacon falling to the floor from the breakfast table, John Eastman could not let go of the scent. Attorney Greg Jacob told the House Committee on J6 yesterday that Mike Pence said Trump attorney Eastman was engaging in “rubber room stuff.” Jacob was relaying a final conversation between him and Pence about Eastman’s last push to try and get the former Vice President not to recognize the legal election of the then-future President Joe Biden. Eastman was so brazen that after a day of rioting, death, and jeopardizing the country, he still implored Mr. Pence to decertify the election.
I have no qualms with Eastman asserting his 5th Amendment right in his video-recorded testimony over 100 times. He had every legal right to do so, and his lawyer would be remiss to possibly allow him to incriminate himself. Ironically, one of the people who has determined that using the 5th is tantamount to admitting guilt is his former boss, Donald Trump. During a September campaign rally in Council, Bluffs, Iowa, in the 2016 presidential campaign,Trump said, “So there are five people taking the Fifth Amendment. Like you see on the mob, right? You see the mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” That statement by Mr. Trump was in response to five Hillary Clinton staffers taking the 5th Amendment in—what were—endless and politically motivated Benghazi probes.
Historians and folks like me who remember the Watergate Hearings cannot help but remember the Alexander Butterfield moment when he told the stunned committee that Nixon had a recording system installed in the Oval Office. The revelation set off a Supreme Court fight to release the tapes, eventually forcing Nixon to resign in disgrace. Of course, with advanced technology and many photos—official and non-official we could follow the VP to the bowels of the Capitol complex. Jacob’s revelatory moment confirmed excerpts by reporters/ authors Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker of Pence refusing to get into a car ostensibly because he thought the driver would take him from the complex, which would “vindicate” the insurrectionists. He disobeyed the secret service advice, fearing for either his life, macho, or both. Having not received a call from the President—hours after the Capitol was breached, some speculate that the former VP may have feared Trump’s wrath.
Pence’s apprehension was warranted for himself and his family. Thousands were shouting and clamoring for his execution by hanging, and a mere 40 feet, it was revealed yesterday, separated him from the baying mob. Despite the evidence, Republicans complain of a one-sided hearing. The hearing has been one-sided; all the witnesses have been Trump appointees and Republicans. Not one axe-grinding Democrat or annoying performance artist has marred the hearings. Before fitting Mike Pence for a Mark VII Iron Man suit, let us keep in mind he served four years promoting and championing the man who cared so little about his death, the death of his family, and democracy; he could not pick up the phone to check on his well-being. Mike Pence had a moment, granted a significant moment, but before we crown him the savior of the Republic, keep in mind he carried the former President’s pale of racism, homophobia, misogyny, and destruction of the rule of law—gleefully for many years.
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