Pence To Secret Service Agent on January 6th: “I’m Not Getting in the Car.”

Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post

When it became clear how potentially deadly January 6th insurrection might become, Mike Pence was led to an underground parking lot beneath the Capitol, where he stood (there was nowhere to sit), waiting for what might come next. What did happen then was the arrival of a Secret Service car that had come to take him to safety.

He refused.  But why?

There seem to be three potential reasons, the first two of which have been widely speculated:

1) He didn’t want video of the emergency evacuation of top American leaders to become part of the 24/7 news cycle, played repetitively all around the world, with the voice-over: “America’s Capitol Falls to Terrorist Trump Supporters.”

2) He refused to exit the building until the votes had been fully processed.  To do otherwise would have been to allow the terrorists to accomplish their mission, i.e., blocking the certification of the election.

3) He feared for his life.  Trump had announced that Pence lacked the courage to protect the Constitution and the nation itself, and, at a certain point, they began to chant, “Hang Mike Pence!” No one could blame him for being extremely cautious about getting into a vehicle driven by a stranger.

We need to be fully prepared to live with the high probability that this will never be resolved.  After all, we still don’t know who shot JFK.