Pelosi Reveals Mike Pence’s Behind-the-Scenes Reaction to January 6

Back in January 2021, then–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer tried to convince Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to remove Donald Trump from presidential office.

The Democratic leaders made a call to Pence’s office shortly after the January 6 Capitol riot, according to revelations in Pelosi’s upcoming memoir, The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House. An advance copy of the book, due to be released next week, was obtained by The Guardian. But Pence’s office left the two on hold for 20 minutes and never responded to them.

“Following January 6, the Democratic leadership discussed asking the vice president to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which allows for the vice president and a majority of cabinet members to certify that a president is unable to discharge the duties of the office,” Pelosi wrote.

She and the then–Senate Minority Leader Schumer called Pence to talk about invoking the provision, but Pence didn’t reply.

“The vice president’s office kept us on hold for 20 minutes,” Pelosi wrote. She added that she was “thankfully” at home at the time and “could also empty the dishwasher and put in a load of laundry” while waiting for Pence to respond. But he didn’t.

“Ultimately, Vice President Pence never got on the phone with us or returned our call,” wrote Pelosi.

While it’s well known that Pelosi, Schumer, and several other members of Congress made public calls to have Trump removed from office during that time, this phone call wasn’t public knowledge until now. Pence went on to publicly reject calls to invoke the constitutional provision in a letter to Pelosi later that month, despite defying Trump and his supporters on January 6 and certifying his election loss.

The missed phone call is another reminder that Pence, while doing the bare minimum of certifying the 2020 presidential election, failed to step up and take action against the biggest danger to democracy when he had the chance.

New polling data out Thursday shows Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump neck and neck in several key swing states.

Surveys conducted by conservative market researcher Public Opinion Strategies for the Competitiveness Coalition showed Harris leading Trump in Pennsylvania (48 percent to 45 percent) and Wisconsin (48–46). The two are also tied 45–45 in the battleground state of Michigan.

Meanwhile, Trump squeezed ahead of Harris in Nevada and Arizona by one percentage point and three percentage points, respectively. The survey was conducted between July 23 and 29. Pollsters spoke to 400 people in each battleground state, resulting in a margin of error of plus or minus 2.19 percent.

Despite 57 percent of those polled saying they disapprove of the job Joe Biden has done as president, a number still said Harris would have their vote. Across the five states, Trump and Harris tied perfectly, each with 46 percent of the vote.

Voters chose inflation, border security, and threats to American democracy out of a list of options as their key issues, with abortion following close behind.

A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of registered voters published Tuesday showed Harris with a larger lead in Michigan, beating Trump by 11 percentage points. In Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada, she held a two percentage point advantage.

Political polling is not always the best indicator of public opinion, as polls tend to eliminate nuance or only capture opinions from the most politically active people. But the new data is still significant considering how far Biden was trailing behind Trump in the final days of his campaign.

Donald Trump doesn’t seem the least bit happy about the release of three American citizens who were wrongfully imprisoned in Russia. Why? Probably because he had nothing to do with it.

The White House announced Thursday that “three American citizens and one American green-card holder who were unjustly imprisoned in Russia are finally coming home: Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza.”

In total, the exchange freed 16 people imprisoned in Russia, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who had been political prisoners in their own country. The U.S. worked alongside Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey to secure the deal, according to the statement.

The Wall Street Journal, where Gershkovich works, has dubbed it “the largest and most complex East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War.” But rather than celebrate, Trump took to Truth Social Thursday to whine that he was not on the inside of brokering the gargantuan deal.

“So when are they going to release the details of the prisoner swap with Russia?” Trump wrote—the first of his many questions.

“How many people do we get versus them? Are we also paying them cash? Are they giving us cash (Please withdraw that question, because I’m sure the answer is NO)? Are we releasing murderers, killers, or thugs?”

“Just curious because we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps. Our ‘negotiators’ are always an embarrassment to us! I got back many hostages, and gave the opposing Country NOTHING—and never any cash. To do so is bad precedent for the future. That’s the way it should be, or this situation will get worse and worse. They are extorting the United States of America. They’re calling the trade ‘complex’—That’s so nobody can figure out how bad it is,” Trump wrote.

Trump’s anti-diplomacy pearl-clutching is not only inane, it is also hypocritical. His own administration facilitated several prisoner swaps during his time in office.

In 2019, the Trump administration oversaw the release of three senior Taliban leaders imprisoned in Afghanistan, in exchange for one American, Kevin King, and Timothy Weeks, an Australian. One month later, the U.S. freed Masoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist convicted of export violations, in exchange for the return of Xiyue Wang, a Princeton graduate student held in Iran.

In October 2020, one of Trump’s deputy assistants agreed to free 250 Houthi rebels being held in Oman, in exchange for two Americans, Sandra Loli and Mikael Gidada, who were held hostage by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen.

Two years later, Trump lied, bragging that, while in office, he’d secured the release of 58 hostages without giving anything in return.

It’s entirely likely that Trump is suffering from some kind of diplomatic FOMO. At CNN’s infamous presidential debate in June, Trump promised that he would free Gershkovich before he even took office.

“As soon as I win the election, I will have that reporter out,” he said, not referring to Gershkovich by name, instead calling him a “good guy.”

Trump alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin had demanded “billions of dollars” for Gershkovich’s release but failed to produce any evidence to support that claim. Rather, Putin has repeatedly indicated that he wanted one person in particular: Vadim Krasikov, a former intelligence officer who had shot a rebel leader in Berlin in 2019.

Despite the fact that Trump never got the chance to follow through on his flimsy promise, that hasn’t stopped his sycophants from tossing him some credit anyway.

After President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a deal to free American hostages in Russia, J.D. Vance somehow tried to give Donald Trump the credit.

Vance’s initial reaction to the news began normally, in an interview with CNN’s Steve Contorno.

“Look, I think it’s great news, at least what little we know. We certainly want these Americans to come back home. It was ridiculous that they were in prison to begin with,” the Republican vice presidential nominee said, before going in a completely different direction.

“But we have to ask ourselves, why are they coming home? And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house,” Vance said. “That’s a good thing. And I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.”

The Ohio senator isn’t making any sense here. He appears to be echoing Trump’s comments from May that only he could free Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, claiming that “Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!”

But this was easily disproved Thursday after the release of the hostages, who also included Marine veteran Paul Whelan and Russian American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva. National security adviser Jake Sullivan was asked about Vance’s claim at a press conference Thursday, and he dismissed the idea.

“I don’t follow,” Sullivan replied.

The super PAC with the highest amount of money raised is likely one you’ve never heard of: “Fairshake PAC.”

According to their website, the group “supports candidates committed to securing the United States as the home to innovators building the next generation of the internet.” In simpler terms, they are an “independent” cryptocurrency and blockchain industry group. According to OpenSecrets, they’ve raised $202,939,294 to influence upcoming elections.

The PAC has spent only a handful of millions so far, almost entirely attacking progressive Democratic candidates. That includes an ad attack against Representative Katie Porter’s California Democratic primary back in February. The group has also spent $2 million to push out progressive New York Representative Jamaal Bowman and $1 million against fellow Squad member Cori Bush’s upcoming primary in Missouri.

Given the PAC’s spending (or lack thereof, relative to how much money it has), it’s no wonder that both major presidential candidates have begun to vie for the cryptocurrency industry’s favor. On July 27, Donald Trump spoke at the national Bitcoin conference.

“You’re going to be very happy with me,” he said as he addressed the conference in Nashville, Tennessee. In his speech, the Republican presidential nominee promised to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet.”

At the same time, Kamala Harris reached out to the blockchain world, reportedly having aides meet with industry officials to “reset” relations and strengthen the Democratic Party’s ties with cryptocurrency business interests. Harris is not likely to sway big donors and PACs such as Fairshake, however.

Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and the venture capitalist firm Winklevoss Capital, already seems to have come out against her.

“Beware of the Big Bluff,” he wrote on X, speaking about Harris’s attempts to win over the industry.

The millions of dollars raised by Fairshake PAC come from Winklevoss and his twin brother Tyler, Coinbase, Ripple, and “techno-optimist” Marc Andreessen. This venture capitalist world has increasingly rallied around Trump following his pick of J.D. Vance for vice president, given Vance’s background in Silicon Valley and relationships with billionaires such as Peter Thiel.

As cryptocurrency researcher Molly White reported, Coinbase is alleged to have skirted campaign finance laws through its donations to Fairshake. If this is the case, this would be the “largest known illegal campaign contribution by a federal contractor,” according to White.

During the 2022 midterms, the crypto industry, led by Sam Bankman-Fried, had an outsize influence through massive campaign spending. At the time, Bankman-Fried spent millions collaborating with AIPAC and Trump to support billionaires and crush the electoral left in Democratic primaries.

As Bankman-Fried sits in prison, Fairshake PAC seems to be willing to take up the mantle in 2024.