Eliana Willis

Trump said Pence was ‘too honest’ over January 6 plot, says ex-vice-president in bookPence also seems to blame anti-Trump Lincoln Project for angering former president with political ad, fueling Capitol attack Shortly before the January 6 insurrection, Donald Trump warned Mike Pence he was “too honest” when he hesitated to pursue legalistic attempts to stop certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory and would make Trump’s supporters “hate his guts”, the former vice-president writes in his memoir.The winner of the midterms is not yet clear – but the loser is Donald TrumpRead morePence also seems, bizarrely, to blame the anti-Trump Lincoln Project for enraging Trump with a political ad, thereby fueling the anger that incited the Capitol attack.Pence’s book, So Help Me God, will be published in the US on Tuesday. An extract was published by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.Describing a conversation on New Year’s Day 2021, five days before supporters Trump told to “fight like hell” stormed the US Capitol, Pence writes that he and Trump discussed a lawsuit filed by Republicans, asking a judge to declare the vice-president had “‘exclusive authority and sole discretion to decide which electoral votes should count”.Pence says Trump told him that if the suit “gives you the power, why would you oppose it?”Pence says he “told him, as I had many times, that I didn’t believe I possessed that power under the constitution”.“You’re too honest,” Trump chided. “Hundreds of thousands are gonna hate your guts … People are gonna think you’re stupid.”In the end, hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some chanting that Pence should be hanged. Nine deaths, including law enforcement suicides, have been linked to the riot.Pence’s book emerges as he seeks to establish himself as an alternative to Trump in the Republican presidential primary for 2024.Trump has indicated he will announce his third consecutive run soon, a plan possibly delayed by midterm elections on Tuesday in which the GOP did not succeed as expected and high-profile Trump-backed candidates failed to win their races.Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor and a much stronger rival to Trump in polling than Pence, provided a bright spot for Republicans with a landslide win that thrust his name back into the spotlight.In hearings held by the House January 6 committee, Pence has been painted as a hero for refusing to attempt to block Biden’s win, even after his life was placed in danger.In the extract published on Thursday, Pence said the Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump conservative operatives, angered Trump with an ad which said Pence would “put the final nail in the coffin” of his re-election campaign by certifying Biden’s win.Rick Wilson, a Lincoln Project co-founder, told the Guardian: “It’s no secret that the Lincoln Project has lived rent-free in Donald Trump’s head since 2019. Mike Pence telling this story is one more powerful testimony to just how our ‘audience of one’ strategy unfailingly disrupts Trump world.”On Twitter, Wilson linked to the ad.On the page, Pence describes events inside the Capitol as Trump’s supporters attacked. His account parallels reporting by news outlets and testimony presented by the House committee, to which Pence has not yet testified.The devoutly Christian Pence gives his version of a call with Trump on the morning of 6 January in which Trump has widely been described as calling his vice-president a “pussy”.Pence writes: “The president laid into me. ‘You’ll go down as a wimp,’ he said. ‘If you [don’t block certification], I made a big mistake five years ago!’”Pence describes his refusal, also widely reported, to get in a Secret Service vehicle, lest his protectors drive him away while the attack was in motion.He describes meetings with Trump after the riot, when Trump’s second impeachment was in train. On 11 January, Pence writes, Trump “looked tired, and his voice seemed fainter than usual”. He says Trump “responded with a hint of regret” when he was told Pence’s wife and daughter were also at the Capitol during the deadly attack.“He then asked, ‘Were you scared?’“‘No,’ I replied, ‘I was angry. You and I had our differences that day, Mr President, and seeing those people tearing up the Capitol infuriated me.’ He started to bring up the election, saying that people were angry, but his voice trailed off. I told him he had to set that aside, and he responded quietly, ‘Yeah.’”Pence claims the Capitol rioters, more than 900 of whom have now been charged, some with seditious conspiracy, were “not our movement”. He says Trump spoke with “genuine sadness in his voice” as he “mused: ‘What if we hadn’t had the rally? What if they hadn’t gone to the Capitol? … It’s too terrible to end like this.’”Pence may risk angering Trump by presenting something approaching presidential contrition. Trump claims to regret nothing about his actions on 6 January, denying wrongdoing in the face of multiple investigations, pursuing the lie that his defeat was the result of electoral fraud and presenting rioters as political prisoners.Pence also describes a meeting on 14 January, “the day after President Trump was impeached for the second time”.“I reminded him that I was praying for him,” Pence writes. Trump, he says, answered “Don’t bother” but added: “It’s been fun.”Pence said he told Trump they would “just have to disagree on two things” – January 6 and the fact Pence would “never stop praying” for Trump.Pence says Trump smiled and said: “That’s right – don’t ever change.”TopicsBooksMike PenceDonald TrumpTrump administrationUS Capitol attackUS elections 2020US politicsnewsReuse this content More

Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams conceded the gubernatorial race to Republican Brian Kemp in a rematch of Georgia’s close 2018 election, saying she ran for election to ‘fight to save Georgia’. ‘I may no longer be seeking the office of governor, but I will never stop doing everything in my power to ensure that the people of Georgia have a voice,’ she  told her supporters. 
Abrams, a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, became a national Democratic figurehead after losing a hard-fought governor’s race to Kemp in 2018 by just 55,000 votes. Her voter registration efforts are credited with helping President Joe Biden win Georgia in 2020 and two Democrats capture the state’s US Senate seats in 2021

Future of Congress hangs in balance as many races still too close to call
Marijuana, abortion, climate crisis: what was down the ballot in the midterm More

Inflation and the state of the economy are at the front of voters’ minds when going out to vote in the closely fought US midterm elections, the results of which threaten to rob the Democrats of control of Congress. Abortion and the threat to democracy also figure highly.
The final results, which will determine control of Congress for the remainder of Biden’s first term as president and possibly further constrain his legislative agenda, could take days or even weeks in some tight Senate races

US politics: latest updates More

Joe Biden was joined by Barack Obama on the campaign trail in the swing state of Pennsylvania on Sunday as the US gets ready to vote in new members of Congress and the Senate. Biden also addressed supporters in Westchester, New York, where he echoed his message that ‘democracy is literally on the ballot’. Donald Trump also visited Pennsylvania, where the former president attended  a rally in support of the Republican candidate for Senate, Mehmet Oz

Biden fights to stop midterms defeat as Republicans poised for sweeping gains More

House January 6 panel grants Trump’s request for extension to subpoenaThe ex-president sought more time to produce responsive records and cooperate with the committee’s Capitol attack investigation Donald Trump responded to the House January 6 select committee’s subpoena deadline for documents with a letter that sought more time to produce responsive records and cooperate with the investigation into the Capitol attack, according to a source familiar with the matter and a statement from the panel.The details of the former president’s requests were not clear. But the select committee, appearing to grant Trump an extension, informed Trump’s lawyers that he must produce documents next week and that he the summons for his appearance under oath remains in place.Will he testify? Trump’s lawyers accept subpoena from Capitol attack panelRead more“We have received correspondence from the former president and his counsel in connection with the select committee’s subpoena. We have informed the former president’s counsel that he must begin producing records no later than next week and remains under subpoena for deposition testimony,” the select committee said.The letter from Trump’s lawyers appears to indicate that the former president is engaging in negotiations with the select committee to stave off the threat of a potential contempt of Congress referral to the justice department, while at the same time slow-walking his cooperation.Trump has been counseled in recent days that he might not need to cooperate with the panel, depending on the results of the midterm elections next Tuesday, the source said, since any contempt referral would almost certainly be withdrawn by Republicans if they take control of Congress in January, the source said.But if Democrats retained their House majority, the former president has been told, then he might need to more seriously consider the extent of his cooperation with the panel – while also making sure his responses to the select committee’s questions do not leave him with potential legal exposure, for instance by making false statements.Back at his Mar-a-Lago resort for the winter, Trump has for weeks been at the center of diverging advice from a coterie of lawyers and aides, who have suggested everything from ignoring the subpoena in its entirety to make good on his own idea about testifying as long as he could do so before a live public audience.The former president, at least for now, appears to have empowered the lawyers suggesting a cautious approach until the midterms. The Dhillon Law Group has been retained to lead talks with the select committee and drafted the letter, which has not been made public, the source said.A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment and a spokesman for the select committee declined to comment further on the former president’s letter.Last month, the select committee transmitted a historic subpoena to Trump and his lawyers making sweeping demands for documents and testimony, raising the stakes in the highly-charged congressional investigation into the Capitol attack that could yet end up before the supreme court.The panel demanded that Trump turn over records of all January 6-related calls and texts sent or received, any communications with members of Congress, as well as communications with the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, extremist groups that stormed the Capitol. The expansive subpoena ordered Trump to produce documents by 4 November and testify on 14 November about interactions with key advisers who have asserted their fifth amendment right against self-incrimination, including the political operatives Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.“Because of your central role in each element,” the panel’s chairman, Bennie Thompson, and vice-chair, Liz Cheney, wrote, “the select committee unanimously directed the issuance of a subpoena seeking your testimony and relevant documents in your possession on these and related topics.”The subpoena also sought materials that appeared destined to be scrutinized as part of an obstruction investigation conducted by the select committee, such as one request that asked for records about Trump’s efforts to contact witnesses and their lawyers before their depositions.TopicsDonald TrumpUS Capitol attackJanuary 6 hearingsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Joe Biden has warned Americans against condoning ‘political violence’ as the midterm elections approach, raising the alarm about the threats to US democracy. ‘We don’t settle our differences in America with a riot, a mob or a bullet, or a hammer. We settle them peaceably at the ballot box,’ the president said during a prime time address on Wednesday. ‘It’s within our power, each and every one of us to preserve our democracy. And I believe we will,’ he added.
Biden’s speech came after an attack on House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, 82-year-old Paul Pelosi, at their home. 

Biden urges Americans to take a stand against political violence: ‘We’re facing a defining moment’ More

At a rally in Georgia, Barack Obama commented on the violent attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband. The former US president said Paul Pelosi was a ‘good friend’ and condemned politicians who ‘stir up division to make folks as angry and as afraid of one another … for their own advantage’.
Pelosi was attacked with a hammer after an intruder entered his home in San Francisco, demanding to see his wife, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who was in Washington. The attack has prompted fears of growing political violence in the US before the midterm elections on 8 November

Paul Pelosi in hospital with skull fracture after attack

Attack heightens fears of increasing US political violence More

Trump aide Mark Meadows must testify before Georgia grand jury, judge ordersTrump’s former chief of staff must answer questions about alleged attempt to overturn 2020 election result A judge on Wednesday ordered the former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to testify before a special grand jury investigating whether Donald Trump and his allies illegally tried to overturn Georgia’s results in the 2020 election.Trump’s ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows complies with January 6 subpoenaRead moreMeadows is a key figure in the investigation. He traveled to Georgia, sat in on calls with state officials and coordinated and communicated with influencers either encouraging or discouraging the pressure campaign.The Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, opened the investigation last year. Meadows is just one of several Trump associates and advisers whose testimony Willis has sought.Because Meadows does not live in Georgia, Willis, a Democrat, had to get a judge where he lives, in South Carolina, to order him to appear. Edward Miller, a circuit court judge in Pickens county, ordered Meadows to testify, a Willis spokesperson confirmed.Meadows’s attorney, Jim Bannister, said his client was “weighing all options” including appeals.“Nothing final until we see the order,” he said.Willis has been fighting similar battles in courts around the US. An appeals court in Texas has indicated it may not recognize the validity of the Georgia summonses. Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, asked the US supreme court to intervene after a federal appeals court ordered him to testify.In the petition seeking Meadows’s testimony, Willis wrote that he attended a 21 December 2020 meeting with Trump and others “to discuss allegations of voter fraud and certification of electoral college votes from Georgia and other states”.The next day, Willis wrote, Meadows made a “surprise visit” to Cobb county, just outside Atlanta, where an audit of signatures on absentee ballot envelopes was being conducted. He asked to observe but was not allowed to because the audit was not open to the public, the petition says.Meadows also sent emails to justice department officials alleging voter fraud in Georgia and elsewhere and requesting investigations, Willis wrote. And he took part in a 2 January 2021 call with the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, during which Trump suggested Raffensperger “find” enough votes to overturn the president’s loss in the state.According to a transcript of the call, Meadows said Trump’s team believed that “not every vote or fair vote and legal vote was counted. And that’s at odds with the representation from the secretary of state’s office.” He also said he hoped they could agree on a way “to look at this a little bit more fully”. Raffensperger disputed the assertions.After the election, Meadows was widely seen in the White House as a chief instigator of Trump’s fixation on the election, passing along conspiracies about fraud other officials were forced to swat down. He pushed one theory that people in Italy had changed votes in the US with satellite technology, a claim the former justice department official Richard Donoghue labeled “pure insanity”.In a court filing this week, Meadows’s lawyer argued that executive privilege and other rights shield his client from testifying.Bannister asserted that Meadows has been instructed by Trump “to preserve certain privileges and immunities attaching to his former office as White House chief of staff”. Willis’s petition calls for him “to divulge the contents of executive privileged communications with the president”, Bannister wrote.Meadows also invoked that privilege in a fight against subpoenas issued by the House January 6 committee. Meadows has been fighting investigations of the Capitol attack and has avoided having to testify. He turned over thousands of texts to the House committee before refusing an interview.The House held Meadows in contempt of Congress but the justice department declined to prosecute.Special grand juries in Georgia cannot issue indictments. Instead, they can gather evidence and compel testimony and recommend further action, including criminal charges. It is up to the district attorney to decide whether to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury.TopicsGeorgiaTrump administrationUS elections 2020newsReuse this content More