Trump knew Mike Pence was ‘one window pane away’ from Capitol mob: Jan. 6 committee

Former President Trump knew Mike Pence was in grave danger from the mob marauding through the Capitol when he tweeted an attack on his longtime loyal vice president, a member of the Jan. 6 committee said Thursday.

As the congressional panel prepared for its third hearing, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said Trump knew Pence was in the mob’s crosshairs when he branded Pence was a coward for not joining his scheme to overturn the election.

“[Trump] knew that there was violence and he still tweeted the vice president didn’t have the courage to do what was necessary,” Aguilar told NBC News, adding that “(Pence was) one window pane away from the mob.”

Within seconds of the tweet, Secret Service agents whisked Pence from his ceremonial office to the relative safety of a basement evacuation area as extremist attackers chanted “Hang Mike Pence” and erected mock gallows outside to carry out the threat.

“They had already noticed that it was unsafe there because of the windows,” Aguilar said. “But clearly, right at that time, they knew that they needed to get out of there.”

Aguilar spoke out hours before the panel is expected to zero in on the intense corrupt pressure campaign Trump mounted to get Pence to join his effort to keep them both in power despite losing the 2020 election.

The lawmaker is expected to lead the questioning of Pence’s former counsel Greg Jacob about the ex-veep’s refusal to bow to Trump’s demands in the days leading up to the Jan. 6 attack.

Jacob and conservative retired federal judge Michael Luttig will tell the committee that they told Pence that he had no constitutional right to refuse to certify the election as Trump demanded.

Luttig has called Jan. 6 a “war on America’s democracy” and says that if Pence had adhered to Trump’s demands to overturn the election, “America would immediately have been plunged into … a paralyzing constitutional crisis.”

Ahead of the hearing, former chief of staff, Marc Short said Pence was determined to stay at the Capitol and fulfill his constitutional duty despite the deadly threats.

“He knew his job was to stay at his post,” Short told CNN.

The hearing will explore the extreme legal theory cooked up by far right-wing legal scholar John Eastman that asserted Pence could simply refuse to certify President Biden’s electoral college win or delay the proceeding until pro-Trump slates of electors could be seated.

[ Trump ‘detached from reality’ as he spewed election lies: Bill Barr ]

Pence rejected the plan out of hand. But Trump, who former Attorney General Bill Barr testified had become increasingly “detached from reality,” sought to browbeat Pence into capitulating as the days and hours ticked down to Jan. 6.

“Donald Trump started to focus his attention on January 6th and Mike Pence and wanted him to violate the Constitution and set aside the ballots and the electors.”

In a final confrontation on the morning of the riot, an irate Trump called Pence a coward. His own daughter, Ivanka Trump, disagreed, telling an aide: “Mike Pence is a good man.”

Trump kept fuming at Pence even as the attack on the Capitol unfolded and the seriousness of the threat to the safety of the veep became clear.

“The president pointed, you know, to the mob and said it’s the vice president’s fault,” Aguilar said.

One witness told the committee that Trump reacted with approval when he heard the crowd chanting death threats aimed at Pence.

Pence, who is considering a White House bid in 2024, did not want to testify to the committee, likely in hopes of avoiding alienating Trump’s army of supporters.