Former vice president Mike Pence has blamed Donald Trump for endangering his family “and all those serving at the Capitol” during the January 6 riots in a new memoir.
So Help Me God is Mr Pence’s first account in his own words of the Republican former president’s extraordinary effort to push him to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Writing about the day thousands of rioters stormed the Capitol in Washington DC – with some chanting “Hang Mike Pence” – he says: “They had come to protest the result of the election and to prevent Congress from fulfilling its responsibility to open and count the Electoral College votes.
“And, as I later learned, many had come looking for me.”
The book, which traces Mr Pence’s life in politics — from serving as youth co-ordinator for a local Democratic Party to watching then-vice president Al Gore certify his election loss days after Mr Pence had been sworn in as a member of Congress — largely defends Mr Trump, glossing over and whitewashing many of his most contentious episodes.
But he makes clear that January 6 2021 was a breaking point in which Mr Trump’s “reckless words had endangered my family and all those serving at the Capitol”.
“For four years, we had a close working relationship. It did not end well,” he writes.
“We parted amicably when our service to the nation drew to a close. In the months that followed, we spoke from time to time, but when the president returned to the rhetoric that he was using before that tragic day and began to publicly criticise those of us who defended the Constitution, I decided it would be best to go our separate ways.”
The book, published by Simon & Schuster, comes as Mr Pence appears increasingly likely run for president in 2024, a move that would put him in direct conflict with Mr Trump, who is expected to formally launch his own re-election campaign in Florida.
Mr Pence never directly states that Democrat Joe Biden won the election fairly, and writes that when Mr Trump first suggested holding a rally in Washington on January 6, the day Mr Pence was set to preside over the election’s certification, he thought it was a good idea.
“My first thought was that a rally that day might be useful as a way to call even more attention to the proceedings on the floor of the House and Senate,” he writes.
Instead, he describes sitting in the Senate chamber and presiding over the certification when a Senate parliamentarian leaned over to inform him that rioters had breached the building and a member of his Secret Service detail rushing over to insist they leave.
Mr Pence refused to leave the building and was instead ushered to a Senate loading dock, where he spent hours, surrounded by staff and family members, making calls to military and congressional leaders to co-ordinate the government’s response, as Mr Trump — who never bothered to check on his safety — sat watching TV.
“All around was a blur of motion and chaos: security and police officers directing people to safety, staffers shouting and running for shelter. I could see the intensity in the eyes of the Secret Service detail; it was audible, too, in the voices of the Capitol Police. I could hear the fall of footsteps and angry chanting,” Mr Pence writes.
But he insists he was “not afraid”, only angry at what was unfolding.
When Mr Pence in hiding, Mr Trump sent the infamous tweet saying his former ally “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution”.
“I just shook my head,” Mr Pence said. “The truth was, as reckless as the president’s tweet was, I really didn’t have time for it. Rioters were ransacking the Capitol. The president had decided to be part of the problem. I was determined to be part of the solution. I ignored the tweet and got back to work.”
He also describes Mr Trump’s campaign to pressure him to dismiss the results of the election by rejecting Electoral College votes or sending them back to the states, even though the Constitution makes clear that the vice president’s role is purely ceremonial.
During one lunch on November 16 2020, Mr Pence said he told Mr Trump that “if the legal challenges came up short and if he was unwilling to concede, he could simply accept the results of the elections, move forward with the transition, and start a political comeback, winning the Senate runoffs in Georgia, the governor’s race in Virginia in 2021, and the House and Senate in 2022″.
“That accomplished, I said, he could run for president in 2024 and win,” Mr Pence writes. “He seemed unmoved, even weary, at the prospect.”
As the lawsuits Mr Trump’s legal team was pushing continued to fail, Mr Pence says the ousted president’s mood darkened and he became increasingly irate.
Mr Pence says Mr Trump berated him, telling him, “You’re too honest”, and predicting that “hundreds of thousands are gonna hate your guts” and “people are gonna think you’re stupid”.
“As the days wore on, it was becoming clear that there would be a real cost to me politically when I presided over the certification of the 2020 election,” he writes.
“I always knew that I did not possess the authority to overturn the election. I knew it would be hurtful to my friend for me to participate in the certification. But my duty was clear.”
After the Capitol was cleared of the rioters, Congress reconvened and Mr Pence presided over the certification of his and Mr Trump’s defeat.
For several days the two men did not speak, but when they finally met five days later, Mr Pence says: “I told him that I had prayed for him for the past four and a half years, and I encouraged him to pray.”
