Tag: Pence

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Jim Jordan texted Mark Meadows argument for Mike Pence to reject Biden electoral votes

Jim Jordan texted Mark Meadows argument for Mike Pence to reject Biden electoral votes

Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Saul Loeb | Pool via Reuters

Republican MP Jim Jordan conveyed a message to then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows arguing that Vice President Mike Pence should reject certain Electoral College votes on Jan. 6 during the confirmation of Joe Biden’s presidential win over Donald Trump.

The text, which NBC News confirmed Wednesday was broadcast from Jordan, was one of several messages to Meadows a House special committee publicly shared this week as it pursued criminal disdain for Trump’s former chief of staff.

The text was written by Joseph Schmitz, a former Pentagon inspector general and former Trump campaign aide, and passed on to Meadows by Jordan, a source told NBC News. Schmitz could not be reached immediately to comment.

The message said that on Jan. 6, Pence was due to “cast all votes which he believed to be unconstitutional as there were no votes at all,” alleging that such an act would be consistent with “judicial precedence” and “guidance from.” Founding father Alexander Hamilton “stand. “

The legally questionable argument that Pence could unilaterally invalidate or deny a state’s votes was rejected by Pence himself, despite Trump urging him to do so.

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Schmitz’s argument, relayed by an incumbent member of Congress to the president’s chief adviser, reveals how Trump’s allies at all levels exchanged ideas about how the outcome of the democratic elections could be changed.

Jordan is a staunch ally of Trump who worked alongside Meadows in the conservative House Freedom Caucus. The Ohio legislature was one of dozen of Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted to challenge election results that favored Biden after the rioters were evacuated from the Capitol.

Jordan spokesmen did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request to comment on the text sent to Meadows.

The special committee is tasked with investigating the facts and causes of the deadly invasion of January 6, when hundreds of Trump supporters forcibly stormed the Capitol and forced Congress to flee their chambers. Many of the rioters were spurred on by Trump’s false claims that the 2020 elections had been “rigged” against him by widespread electoral fraud.

The House of Representatives voted Tuesday night to hold Meadows for disregarding Congress for defying the summons of the selected panel to request dismissal. The committee says Meadows created thousands of pages of records and agreed to answer questions before abruptly pulling back. Meadows has sued the selected panel for invalidating two of his subpoenas, arguing, in part, that Trump exercised executive privilege over his testimony.

The committee this week revealed some of Meadows’ records, including texts he received from Jordan and other lawmakers. They also shared messages sent to Meadows by Donald Trump Jr. and several pro-Trump Fox News presenters, who panicked over the Capitol uprising as it unfolded.

“He must condemn this s — as soon as possible. The Capitol Police’s tweet is not enough, ”Trump Jr. wrote to Meadows on Jan. 6, said Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Vice chair of the special committee, during a meeting Monday night.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Read part of Jordan’s message to Meadows at the meeting without naming Jordan as the sender.

“On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, was supposed to call all votes that he deems unconstitutional because there were no votes at all,” reads the text, which was sent to Meadows by a person who only described Schiff as “Legislator”.

An accompanying graphic displayed this quote as a full sentence. Jordan’s office argued to NBC that Schiff misrepresented the message because it omitted some of the language Jordan sent to Meadows.

A select committee spokesman told CNBC that the graphic “accidentally” added a period to the end of the quote Schiff read during the meeting. “The special committee is responsible for the mistake and regrets the mistake,” said the spokesman.

The spokesman sent the full text messaging record “in the interests of transparency” to CNBC.

It states: “On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call all votes that he deems to be unconstitutional, as there are no votes at all – according to the instructions of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and ‘No legislative act,’ wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, ‘may be valid against the Constitution.’ The Hubbard v. Lowe affirmed this truth: “That an unconstitutional law is not a law at all is no longer up for discussion.” 226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 US 654 (1916). Because of this, an unconstitutional elector, like an unconstitutional law, is not a voter at all. “

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Pence, Diverging From Trump, Says He Was ‘Proud’ to Certify Election

Pence, Diverging From Trump, Says He Was ‘Proud’ to Certify Election

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday night made his most forceful attempt yet to separate himself from his former boss, Donald J. Trump, on the issue of certifying the 2020 election results.

Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., Mr. Pence defended the constitutionally mandated role he played in certifying the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, when a violent mob of Trump loyalists — some chanting “Hang Mike Pence” — stormed the Capitol while the president did nothing for hours to stop them.

“I will always be proud that we did our part on that tragic day to reconvene the Congress and fulfilled our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States,” Mr. Pence said, noting that as vice president, he had no constitutional authority to reject or return electoral votes submitted to Congress by the states. “The truth is, there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”

It was the furthest that Mr. Pence, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, has gone yet in defending his role that day or distancing himself from Mr. Trump, to whom he ingratiated himself during their four years together in office.

In the speeches Mr. Pence has delivered since leaving the White House, he has gone out of his way to praise Mr. Trump and his agenda, even reiterating some of the former president’s grievance-fueled messaging that latches onto the country’s culture wars.

On Thursday night, Mr. Pence argued that “critical race theory,” a graduate school framework that has found its way into K-12 public education, was effectively “state-sanctioned racism.”

And he spent much of his speech reciting what he said were Mr. Trump’s accomplishments on many issues, including free trade, border security and relations with China. “President Trump changed the national consensus on China,” he said.

Mr. Pence also compared Mr. Trump to former President Ronald Reagan.

“He too disrupted the status quo,” Mr. Pence said. “He challenged the establishment. He invigorated our movement and set a bold new course for America.”

But so far, Mr. Pence has only tiptoed around the issue of how to remain the loyal soldier while distancing himself from the events of Jan. 6.

Speaking at the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in Manchester, N.H., this month, Mr. Pence admitted that he and Mr. Trump might never see “see eye to eye” about the Capitol riot, stopping short of criticizing one view over another.

On Thursday night, he declined to state firmly that he and Mr. Trump had lost the 2020 election, a reality that the former president has continued to deny.

“I understand the disappointment many feel about the last election,” Mr. Pence said. “I can relate. I was on the ballot. But there’s more at stake than our party or our political fortunes in this moment. If we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections — we’ll lose our country.”

Whether Mr. Pence will succeed in having it both ways — being viewed as an ally and a critic of Mr. Trump — remains to be seen. Polls show that a majority of Republican voters believe that Mr. Trump won the 2020 election and buy into his baseless claims about voter fraud.

Mr. Pence is also testing the patience of a man who still looms over the political landscape and the Republican Party. While Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence have spoken several times since leaving office, Mr. Trump has showed flashes of frustration with his former loyal No. 2.

In private and at a Republican National Committee donors event at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s resort in Florida, shortly after a book deal for Mr. Pence was announced, the former president has mocked Mr. Pence for certifying President Biden’s Electoral College victory, according to people familiar with the discussions as well as a detailed description of the remarks that evening.

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Pence, Christie, different high GOP White Home contenders to talk at Karl Rove occasion

Pence, Christie, other top GOP White House contenders to speak at Karl Rove event

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence takes a break while speaking during an Operation Warp Speed ​​vaccination summit at the White House in Washington, DC, on December 8, 2020.

Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and other Republican leaders considered potential candidates for the GOP’s 2024 presidential run plan to attend a private donor meeting in Texas next week.

The donors’ meeting is being organized, at least in part, by Karl Rove, a former adviser to President George W. Bush and senior Republican strategist, according to several informed people, including those attending the meeting. People who refused to appear in this story did so to speak about a private matter.

The schedule lists Pence, Christie, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., And Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Another potential candidate, Senator Tim Scott, RS.C., will also be in attendance after refuting President Joe Biden’s congressional address on Wednesday.

Remarkably, former President Donald Trump, who publicly and privately blew up Rove, is missing from the speech’s agenda.

The event, known as the Texas Victory Committee Donor Appreciation Conference, is scheduled for May 7th in Austin. This emerges from an agenda first received from CNBC. It is supposed to take place at the Omni Barton Creek Resort.

A Pompeo adviser told CNBC that the former foreign minister “will attend Karl Rove’s event and will chair the speakers.” Representatives of most of the other Republicans mentioned and supposed to be in this story did not respond to requests for comment.

It would be one of the first times some of the GOP’s top financiers hear of multiple candidates who could run for president on the Republican ticket against Biden in the next election.

Rove’s role in organizing the event suggests that the seasoned, deeply connected Republican strategist introduces these potential competitors to his Texas donor network.

Rove co-founded the Republican super-PAC American Crossroads, which raised over $ 80 million in the 2020 election cycle, according to the Federal Election Commission. Data from the Center for Responsive Policy shows the PAC spent over $ 75 million on Democrats this cycle.

Cotton, DeSantis, Scott and Rubio are available for re-election to their respective offices in 2022, making the congregation even more important as they woo donors.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott, R-Fla., Is also scheduled to attend the donation event. An NRSC spokesman indicated that the focus of discussions would be on the upcoming midterm elections and the adoption of Biden’s agenda.

“Chairman Scott looks forward to joining Senator Cornyn in Texas next week to discuss our efforts to win back the Senate and fight the radical Democratic agenda,” NRSC spokesman Chris Hartline told CNBC Thursday .

Some of the potential candidates attending the Rove gathering were also recently in Florida during several donor retreats, including events held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort.

Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, is expected to be the first to welcome donors to the retreat. The itinerary states that Pompeo will be interviewed first. Pence is then interviewed, followed by others speaking in front of donors, including Rubio, DeSantis, Christie and Cotton.

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Former Vice President Pence will get pacemaker implanted, expects full restoration

Former Vice President Pence gets pacemaker implanted, expects full recovery

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence announces the Trump administration’s plan to create the U.S. Space Force by 2020 during a speech at the Pentagon on August 9, 2018 in Arlington, Virginia.

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

Former Vice President Mike Pence had surgery to have a pacemaker implanted after “symptoms related to a slow heart rate,” his office said Thursday, NBC News reported.

The “routine operation” was successfully carried out on Wednesday, according to Pence’s office, according to which the 61-year-old former vice president is “expected to recover fully and return to normal activity in the coming days.”

The statement stated that Pence’s medical history included a diagnosis of asymptomatic left bundle branch block. He’s had symptoms for the past two weeks and consulted his doctors before undergoing the procedure at the Inova Fairfax Medical campus in Falls Church, Virginia.

“I am grateful for the prompt professionalism and care of the excellent doctors, nurses and staff at Inova Heart and Vascular Institute, including Dr. Brett Atwater and Dr. Behnam Tehrani,” said Pence in the statement.

“I also appreciate the advice of my longtime Indiana doctors, Dr. Michael Busk and Dr. Charles Taliercio of Ascension St. Vincent. My family has been truly blessed by the work of these dedicated health professionals,” said Pence.

Kevin McCarthy, minority chairman of the House of Representatives, R-Calif., Tweeted a message of support to Pence later Thursday.

Pence is widely rumored to be laying the groundwork for a possible 2024 presidential election. However, a candidate’s health and medical history can often have a significant impact on a political campaign.

For example, former President Donald Trump’s state of health underwent an in-depth review in the final months of his re-election bid when he was hospitalized with the coronavirus. Critics had already accused Trump, who is overweight and known to have poor diet, of having misled his medical records.

Campaigns themselves can also be physically and mentally demanding. In 2016, for example, the impotent episode of then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton dominated the headlines at an anniversary ceremony on September 11th.

Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Had a heart attack while running for president in October 2019. He returned to campaigning later that month.

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New video exhibits Capitol riot, Romney and Pence evacuating

New video shows Capitol riot, Romney and Pence evacuating

The House impeachment executives on Wednesday used graphic video and audio clips – some of which had not been publicly released – to recreate the moments when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Delegate Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat representing the U.S. Virgin Islands, presented the harrowing footage and sound as she illustrated the danger ex-Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress faced when they won President Joe Biden’s election confirmed.

It came on a day when the impeachment executives of the House of Representatives were setting out their case, that former President Donald Trump before lawmakers who both witnessed the attack and will decide whether to condemn the former president for causing a riot against the Government triggered.

“President Trump put a target on their backs and his mob went to the Capitol to hunt them down,” said Plaskett at the end of her presentation.

The video shows the first moments Trump supporters break through barricades and approach the Capitol while some scattered police officers throw blows but do not hold them back. The police can be heard in previously unpublished radio protocols in which reinforcement is requested in the event of “several violations of the law enforcement authorities”.

One officer describes rioters who “throw metal bars at us”. Another says, “They start throwing explosives” or “Fireworks”.

“This is practically a riot now,” an official said Jan. 6 at around 1:49 p.m. ET.

When rioters reach the Capitol, they knock on windows and kick doors. A man breaks a window with a screen and the mob streams in through the opening. A rioter carries a Confederate flag into the Capitol.

US Vice President Mike Pence looks back on January 6th when his security detail of US intelligence brought and evacuated him from a secure room in the US Capitol during the impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump for inciting a fatal attack on the U.S. Capitol on Capitol Hill in Washington, USA on February 10, 2021.

US Senate | Reuters

In security videos of the same incident from inside the building, which Plaskett said has never been seen, rioters pour through a door and window while a lone officer responds. One member of the crowd wears tactical body armor and another has a baseball bat.

After the Senate pauses at about 2:13 p.m. ET, Pence and the Senators leave the Chamber. Security footage shows former Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who later turned rioters away from the Senate Chamber, passed Utah GOP Senator Mitt Romney in a hallway and told him to hurry in the opposite direction of the mob.

Additional security footage shows Pence and his family storming down a flight of stairs as they evacuate from the Senate Chamber.

Even more videos show rioters looking for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Asking, “Where are you, Nancy? We’re looking for you.” A Pelosi employee in hiding whispers into a phone, “You are knocking on the doors and trying to find them.”

A subsequent presentation by Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., Recreated how close the mob was to reaching Members of the House. Security footage showed lawmakers fleeing the chamber of the house and walking through hallways wearing gas masks.

He presented a video in which police shot and killed Ashli ​​Babbitt, the woman who died as a group of rioters trying to break through doors near the chamber of the house.

Swalwell also showed a video of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., who turned and crawled the other way after moving in the direction of the mob.

“You were only 58 paces from where the mob had gathered,” Swalwell told the senators.

Some senators, including Romney, watched carefully as the impeachment managers re-enacted the danger faced by lawmakers, according to reporters at the Capitol. Masks they wore to slow the spread of the coronavirus-protected reactions.

The senators watched dozens of haunting videos, the last of which showed the mob crushing a cop in a doorway as he yelled. Swalwell ended his presentation with the graphic clip.

The House of Representatives prosecuting the Trump case are faced with the challenge of convincing Republican senators to vote in favor of condemning the former president. Seventeen GOP senators would have to join all 50 Democrats.

On Tuesday only six Republicans voted for the process to continue at all. The former president’s legal team argued that Trump should not face impeachment proceedings after leaving office.

Both sides have 16 hours to resolve their cases within up to two days. Trump’s lawyers are expected to argue that months of comments the House says spurred the mob on during the election and after the constitutionally protected speech.

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Pence calls Kamala Harris to supply help forward of inauguration

Pence calls Kamala Harris to offer assistance ahead of inauguration

Vice President Mike Pence listens to a briefing about the upcoming inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris on January 14, 2021 at FEMA headquarters in Washington.

Alex Brandon | Reuters

Vice President Mike Pence called his soon-to-be-replaced Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to congratulate her and offer his support before she and President-elect Joe Biden are sworn in next Wednesday, a person familiar with the matter said.

The Thursday call between Pence and Harris was their first discussion since their public debate last fall during the vicious presidential campaign.

President Donald Trump, who has spent weeks furiously denying Biden his election loss while falsely claiming widespread fraud, has not called the new president.

Trump has acknowledged that the Biden administration will soon take command but has vowed never to allow the election and did not do so publicly.

Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence plan to attend Biden’s inauguration, which compared to previous ceremonies in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and deadly uprising by Trump’s supporters at the U.S. Capitol last week, which officials led to a massive increase in security encouraged, will be significantly reduced.

Trump has said he will not attend Biden’s inauguration. He is expected to leave the White House for his Florida home before Biden takes the oath of office, NBC News reported earlier Friday.

The New York Times first reported on the call, which it described as amiable and pleasant.

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Professional-Trump rioters supposed to kill Pence and members of Congress

Pro-Trump rioters intended to kill Pence and members of Congress

Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Samuel Corum | Getty Images

Federal prosecutors said in a new trial there was “strong evidence” that the pro-Trump rioters who invaded the US Capitol last week intended to “trap and murder elected officials in the United States government “including Vice President Mike Pence.

Prosecutors also noted on the file that “news reports suggest that the siege of the US Capitol may just be the beginning of potentially violent actions by the president [Donald] Trump’s supporters. “

The filing by the office of U.S. Arizona Attorney Michael Bailey called on a judge Friday to arrest Jacob Chansley, one of the most notorious rioters, on Jan. 6 without bail. He plans to return to Washington next week for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

“Chansley is a self-appointed leader of the QAnon,” a group of conspiracy theorists who believe that many US lawmakers are part of a ring of child molesters and satan worshipers.

Bailey’s office said Chansley, wearing a complexion and a hat with horns, ran to a Senate podium “where Vice President Pence had presided only minutes earlier and started posing” to be photographed by other rioters.

Pence chaired a joint congressional session that day to officially confirm the election of Biden as president.

A protester yells in the Senate Chamber in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021.

Win McNamee | Getty Images News | Getty Images

“Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the Capitol rioters’ intent was to capture and murder elected officials in the United States government,” prosecutors wrote on their file.

“Chansley left a note on the podium of the Senate Chamber where Vice President Mike Pence had presided over the meeting minutes earlier warning, ‘It is only a matter of time, justice will come.’ “”

Prosecutors said that when the FBI questioned Chansley about the meaning of his words, he “did a long disgrace in which he described current and former United States leaders as infiltrators, particularly Vice President Mike Pence”.

“He said he was able to get into the United States Senate in DC ‘by the grace of God’.” Chansley said he was glad he was in the Vice President’s chair because Vice President Pence is a traitor to child trafficking, “the file said.

While Chansley alleged that he did not mean the note as a threat, “the government disagrees,” the file reads.

A protester holds a mannequin with a noose “traitor” written on it during a protest at the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, the United States, on Wednesday, January 6, 2021.

Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The prosecutor noted, “Chansley has also expressed an interest in returning to Washington DC for the inauguration and later told the FBI, ‘I’ll still go, you’d better believe it.’ “”

“‘Sure I’d want to be there, as a protester, as a protester, f–‘ a ‘,” he said, according to the file.

In a video interview outside the Capitol when he and other rioters were leaving the complex, Chansley said he had left the Senate and “the cops just walked out with me.”

He also said the mob would leave because Trump posted a message asking them to do so and that the rioters “won” the day.

“We won by sending a message to the Senators and Congressmen. We won by sending a message to Pence: If you don’t … do what your oath is, if you do they don’t keep it. ” Constitution, we’ll remove you then, but one way or another, “Chansley said.

Trump was charged Tuesday by the House of Representatives for instigating the mob that stormed the Capitol complex following a rally on the Ellipse calling on supporters to help him reverse Biden’s election.

Also on Friday, the New York Times reported that the FBI is investigating 37 people in an investigation into the riot murder of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.

The Times cited an FBI memo sent to the private sector and others.

This is the latest news. Check for updates again.

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Home Strikes to Power Trump Out, Vowing Impeachment if Pence Gained’t Act

House Moves to Force Trump Out, Vowing Impeachment if Pence Won’t Act

The president had been excited about the event for days, focused more on it, and tried to overturn the electoral college vote than anything else. On the way to Wednesday, some advisors said privately that Mr. Trump appeared to believe that Mr. Pence could legally pass the election to him in his role as chairman of the vote.

At one point, Mr Trump told the Vice President that he had spoken to Mark Martin, the former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, who had told him that Mr Pence had that authority. Mr. Pence had assured Mr. Trump that he did not. Mr Trump had the Vice President defend his case in a meeting with attorneys whom Rudolph W. Giuliani helped draft.

Both parties admitted they had no clear picture of how many Republican senators could ultimately vote in favor of Mr Trump’s conviction.

Mr Toomey said Mr Trump has been “kind of mad” since the election and has effectively “disqualified” from ever running for office again. But a day after calling Mr. Trump’s behavior “incontestable,” Mr. Toomey argued that impeachment would be impractical as Mr. Trump was already on his way to the exit.

“I think the best way for our country, Chuck, is for the president to step down and leave as soon as possible,” he told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I admit that may not be likely, but I think that would be best.”

Speaking to staff about the prospect of yet another impeachment trial, Mr. Trump was struck by the fact that few people on his defense team would be part of a new trial in last year’s Senate trial.

Jay Sekulow, who has served as his lead personal attorney, and two other private attorneys, Marty Raskin and Jane Raskin, will not attend any future impeachment defense, according to a person briefed on the planning, as will Pat A. Cipollone, attorney for the White House or Patrick F. Philbin, his deputy.

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Pence plans to attend Biden’s inauguration.

Pence plans to attend Biden’s inauguration.

Vice President Mike Pence will attend the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Jan. 20, an adviser to the Vice President said on Saturday, a split over President Trump’s decision not to go.

The adviser revealed the decision four days after Mr Pence crouched for cover in the Capitol complex when a crowd of Trump supporters who attended a rally with the president passed the building during certification of the electoral college’s votes.

Mr Trump confirmed on Friday that he would not attend the inauguration.

Mr. Pence was always more likely to attend the inauguration than Mr. Trump, who would almost certainly skip the ceremony. But after the events at the Capitol on Wednesday in which five people died, the decision was awaited by Mr Pence.

Mr Biden said this week that he was glad not to have Mr Trump there, but that Mr Pence was “welcome” and that it would help with the transition. Mr Trump had publicly and privately pressured Mr Pence to revoke the certifications and toss them back to the states so that Mr Trump could try to reverse the results in states that Mr Biden had won.

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Pence will attend President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration

Pence will attend President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration

United States President Donald Trump listens as Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a press conference in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on February 29, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – Vice President Mike Pence will attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, a well-known person told NBC News.

Pence’s decision to watch Biden’s swearing-in ceremony on January 20 in the U.S. Capitol marks another public break with President Donald Trump since the riots that rocked Washington. On Friday, Trump said he would skip Biden’s inauguration, a move that appeared to undermine the president’s message of national “healing and reconciliation” the day before.

Speaking from Wilmington, Delaware on Friday, Biden welcomed Trump’s decision, calling it “one of the few things we ever agreed on”.

At the suggestion of Pence’s potential participation, Biden said it was “an honor to have him there and to help advance the transition.”

“I think it is important that we stick as closely as possible to the historical precedents and circumstances under which an administration changes,” said Biden.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden attends a briefing to make comments on the U.S. response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak on December 29, 2020 at his headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Traditionally, incoming and outgoing presidents drive together from the White House to the US Capitol for the inauguration ceremony.

Trump isn’t the first outgoing president to skip his successor’s inauguration. The others, according to the White House Historic Association, were Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Johnson. Like Trump, Johnson was also charged.

Before the inauguration, which takes place in less than two weeks, more than 6,200 National Guard personnel will be stationed in the country’s capital and will stay in the region for at least 30 days.

The mobilization ensures that the members of the National Guard are available for Biden’s inauguration in the Capitol.