Former Vice President Mike Pence was hiding in the ‘bowels of the Capitol’ – a loading dock in underground parking garage – as rioters breached security on Jan. 6, ABC’s Jonathan Karl has claimed.
Karl claimed on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show that Pence had been hiding with a White House photographer, who took photos of the bizarre five hours that the vice president was in hiding.
‘I got ahold of the photographer, saw all of the photographs – by the way, it is wild to see – he was in a loading dock in an underground parking garage, beneath the Capitol complex, no place to sit, no desk, no chairs.’
‘With his family, this is the vice president of the US. He’s like holed up in a basement,’ Karl continued.
The reporter was promoting his new book, ‘Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show.’
‘They refused to let me publish the photographs but I have a suspicion the January 6 Committee is going to want to see those photos,’ Karl said. ‘Those aren’t his photos, we paid for those photos.’
Former Vice President Mike Pence was hiding in the ‘bowels of the Capitol’ – a loading dock in underground parking garage – as rioters breached security on Jan. 6, ABC’s Jonathan Karl has claimed
Karl claimed on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show that Pence had been hiding with a White House photographer, who took photos of the bizarre five hours that the vice president was in hiding
Karl said that one of the images depicted Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short showing the vice president his phone, where President Trump had tweeted that Pence ‘didn’t have the courage’ to overturn the election.
Pence was removed from the Senate chamber at 2:14 p.m., according to video footage from that day. He was hidden in a room nearby, with his wife Karen and daughter Charlotte.
Trump sent his tweet at 2:24 p.m.
‘Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution,’ he wrote.
At 2:26 p.m., Pence was moved again – this time from the room he was in near the Senate chamber to a more secure location in the Capitol complex.
The rioters had broken into the Capitol at 2:11 p.m., prompting the removal of Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was presiding in the House.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is lashing out against ABC News’ chief Washington reporter on Monday after an excerpt from the journalist’s new book detailed allegations of a stunning stand-off between the former president and the very political party that got him to the White House.
‘ABC Non News and 3rd rate reporter Jonathan Karl have been writing fake news about me from the beginning of my political career,’ Trump said.
‘Just look at what has now been revealed about the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. It was a made up and totally fabricated scam and the lamestream media knew it. It just never ends!’
The confrontation reportedly took place on January 20, his last day in office, according to an excerpt from the new book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show by Jonathan Karl.
A furious Trump told the Republican National Committee chair that he was ‘done’ with the GOP and would start a new party- adding that Republicans would ‘lose forever’ without him.
‘This is what Republicans deserve for not sticking up for me,’ he reportedly said.
Trump told Karl the idea he wanted to start a new party was ‘bulls**t,’ the author wrote.
‘You mean I was going to form another party or something?…Oh, that is bulls**t, it never happened,’ the ex-president reportedly said.
The excerpt, published by ABC, details the allegedly ‘unpleasant conversation’ between Trump and RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel when she called to ‘wish him farewell.’
Trump reportedly had a ‘very unpleasant conversation’ with RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel when he boarded Air Force One for his last flight as president
What ensued was a tense four-day window in which the RNC played ‘hardball’ with the leader of its own party – threatening to withhold legal defense funds and a list of donor names that’s estimated to be worth $100 million.
Per the account, Trump was aboard Air Force One for his last flight out of the national capital and ‘was in no mood for small talk or nostalgic goodbyes,’ Karl writes.
Book author Jonathan Karl wrote that Trump told him reports he wanted to start a third party are ‘bulls**t’
He told McDaniel over the phone, ‘I’m done. I’m starting my own party.’
‘You cannot do that,’ she reportedly replied. ‘If you do, we will lose forever.’
Trump acknowledged her point. Karl described the ex-president’s attitude as ‘if he had lost, he wanted everybody around him to lose as well.’
‘Exactly,’ Trump told McDaniel. ‘You lose forever without me. I don’t care…This is what Republicans deserve for not sticking up for me.’
A witness to the conversation reportedly described Trump as viewing the Republican Party’s downfall as ‘punishment’ for those who he didn’t think fought hard enough to overturn his 2020 election loss and even more so for those who voted to impeach him.
He viewed their perceived lack of action as a betrayal, the witness claimed in the book.
McDaniel – whose uncle, Utah Senator Mitt Romney, was one of the Republicans who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment – allegedly warned Trump that he risked destroying his legacy if he broke off to start a new party.
‘This isn’t what the people who depended on you deserve, the people who believed in you,’ she reportedly said.
‘You’ll ruin your legacy. You’ll be done.’
His son, Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, was also reportedly fighting with Republican officials.
The alleged conversation was detailed in ABC News journalist Jonathan Karl’s book
‘The younger Trump had been relentlessly denigrating the RNC for being insufficiently loyal to Trump. In fact, at the January 6 rally before the Capitol Riot, the younger Trump all but declared that the old Republican Party didn’t exist anymore,’ Karl wrote.
He also claimed Trump was so ‘adamant’ about leaving the party that a seemingly alarmed McDaniel enlisted RNC officials for a four-day stand-off with the ex-president.
‘The RNC played hardball,’ the book states, while Trump was ‘morose in defeat and eager for revenge.’
An RNC official told the author that ‘there were a lot of things they still depended on the RNC for,’ and that they made clear to Trump’s team that ‘if this were to move forward, all of it would go away.’
One of the perks on the chopping block was Trump’s mounting legal fees over his flurry of 2020 election lawsuits.
‘McDaniel and her leadership team made it clear that if Trump left, the party would immediately stop paying legal bills incurred during post-election challenges,’ Karl wrote.
Both Trump and McDaniel denied the report. Trump said it was ‘bulls**t’ and McDaniel said she and the ex-president have a ‘great relationship’ (pictured at the RNC winter meeting in 2018)
What was ‘more significant,’ according to Karl, was a valuable list of 40 million email addresses belonging to Trump supporters that his campaign would rent to other GOP candidates at a high price.
‘The list generated so much money that party officials estimated that it was worth about $100 million,’ Karl wrote.
It was when ‘the RNC threatened to render Trump’s most valuable political asset worthless,’ that after five days he reportedly backed off.
Both McDaniel and the former president denied the allegations in Karl’s book.
McDaniel said of the allegations, ‘This is false, I have never threatened President Trump with anything.’
She added that they share a ‘great relationship’ and continue to work together to get more Republicans elected.
Monday’s report is not the first time allegations that Trump wanted to break off from Republicans have surfaced.
On his last full day in office the Wall Street Journal published a report that claimed Trump had been having conversations with aides and advisers about starting a new political party.
One of the names floated for the new group was the ‘Patriot Party,’ people in the ex-president’s orbit told the outlet at the time.