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Recently, Lebanon announced that it is on the verge of bankruptcy due to years of sectarian rule that ended in complete political and economic chaos, as political reform failed to eliminate the sectarianism that has plagued the country since the 1975 civil war.

In Iraq, Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr called on political forces to end sectarianism and pay attention to the national interest to form a new Iraqi government, stressing that sectarianism is the reason for Iraqs deterioration.

In Yemen, President of the Presidential Command Council, Rashad Muhammad Al-Alimi, pledged to work to end the war and bring peace to Yemen, stressing that the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council will stand as an impenetrable dam to confront terrorism in all its forms, and will work to combat sectarian conflicts that are tearing up Yemens social fabric. This is especially so since Yemen has turned into an arena for sectarian conflicts that want Yemen to be a starting point to undermine the security and stability of the Arab Gulf.

In Libya, the same sectarian conflict still prevails after nearly a decade since the popular uprising against the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and the military intervention of NATO to help overthrow him. Libya has become a battleground for armed militias competing for power and money. The country witnessed regional and international proxy conflicts that undermined all possibilities for restoring stability.

In the Gulf region, especially after the recent Houthi attacks, the dynamics of sectarian politics have re-emerged, especially that there are about 2 million Shiites within the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Although the sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in the Middle East has existed for more than 1,300 years, sectarian problems were not necessarily intractable. Despite the long history of sectarian divisions in the Middle East, research confirms the possibility of cooperation between the different sects in a way that does not undermine the concept of the state.

According to research, throughout our modern and contemporary Arab history, since the independence of the Arab countries and even before that, no one in the Arab world has called for dividing the Arab countries into Sunni or Shiite countries. Arab socialists called for Arab countries that adopt socialism and value social justice, Arab nationalists call for countries that adopt Arab nationalism and value unity, Arab Islamists call for Islamic countries that value the Islamic approach, and Arab liberals call for liberal countries that value liberalism. In general, the Arab intellectual and political forces did not adopt this hateful sectarian dimension as part of their political programs.

Nevertheless, the nature of sectarianism and sectarian conflict has evolved and changed significantly during that period. Specifically, the sectarian conflict in the Arab world began to take shape to appear in its current form, which succeeded in destroying many Arab countries since the Khomeini revolution in Iran and the regime that was introduced. It was this racist sectarian regime that initiated sectarian hatred and deliberately sought to ignite strife and conflict between Shiites and Sunnis to serve its expansionist project in the Arab region.

Then, the United States and the West assumed the task of developing the sectarian division scheme, which they found a promising project to destroy the Middle East region to exploit its wealth. This scheme, which succeeded in tearing the Arab world apart, destroying Iraq and Syria, cast a shadow over Libya, Yemen and Tunisia, and almost succeeded in Egypt, but the cohesion of the Egyptian people and the strength of their army succeeded in thwarting this scheme. Indeed, Egypt was the only country that was able to survive this devastating sectarian conflict and did not fall into this trap when the Brotherhood succeeded in deceiving the people and reaching power because national unity was the effective weapon that preserved Egypt.

Despite the withdrawal of the United States of America from the Middle East, this sectarian project that seeks to divide the Arab countries into sectarian states is still ongoing and is supported by many American and European research centers that confirm in their research that sectarian conflict in the Middle East is inevitable. What is worse is that these researchers began to focus more on the Arab Gulf states and the need to redraw borders again on sectarian bases to avoid future conflicts. These researches focus on the Gulf countries definitely because they are the second stage in the scheme to tear the Arab world apart after the first stage achieved a lot of success.

The Arab peoples preceded their political leadership and realized that the nation-state and national unity are the only way to preserve the Arab nation and restore its glories. Today, the whole world hears the voices of the masses in the squares of Iraq, Lebanon, and many Arab countries, denouncing sectarianism and foreign labor, and rejecting the rule of militias and the corrupt. All Arab peoples today demand the upholding of the value of the homeland and the national state.

The present moment is a decisive moment for all Arab leaders to prove their patriotism and rise above useless differences. The restoration and preservation of the nation-state are the basis for stability and the beginning of recovery. The sectarian conflicts will only benefit the gangs of terrorism and the forces greedy for the wealth of the Arab world.

Dr. Marwa El-Shinawy Assistant Prof. at International American University for Specialized Studies (IAUS)

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Opinion| Iran and the US are behind sectarian conflict scheme in the Arab world - Daily News Egypt

IranSource

April 21, 2022

ByAhou Koutchesfahani

Iranian womens rights activism is very much present and made visible on social media with countless hashtags, images, and videos circulating online and going viral to regularly draw attention to important causes, such as freedom of expression, sexual abuse by powerful men, and depicting harassment and abuse of women by security forces. However, in much of what is said and shared about Iranian womens plight online, disabled Iranian womens voices often go unheard.

This unequal dynamic within Iranian womens rights activism online is further compounded by social media algorithms, which favor posts that have a large audience engagement rate. Why then, are disabled womens voices marginalized online as they so often are offline?

Since the 2009 post-election protests known as the Green Movement, social media has provided a useful platform for activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens alike to highlight human rights issues and violations to a growing audience within and beyond the transnational Iranian public sphere. Of that group, a minority has focused on raising awareness on disability rights issues, such as the Kampayneh Maloolan (disability campaign), a platform that highlights the discrimination faced by disabled Iranians on the regular.

On Twitter and messaging app Telegramboth platforms are blocked by the Islamic Republic and must be accessed via circumvention toolsthis campaign provides a window into the activism led by disabled Iranians, most notably through the hashtags #_ (#Disability_Law) and #__ (#Pass_Disability_Bill), a reference to Irans Law to Protect the Rights of the Disabled. This was ratified by parliament in 2018 after a Twitter storm in 2017led by the disability campaignmobilized users to make the hashtag trend on Persian language Twitter with over 27,000 tweets. However, more than four years later, the bill has yet to be implemented. The campaigns discourse surrounds disability activism and stands in stark contrast to the lack of representation of disabled Iranians on the platforms of Iranian womens rights activists.

The intersection of disability and womens rights movements

It may be unclear from the outside how the disability and womens rights movements are connected, but the most recent law to be swiftly passed in parliamentnotably, the Population Growth Plan (__#)is a good example of how the Islamic Republic undermines both Iranian women and disabled Iranians. The law, which passed in March 2021, criminalizes the use of contraceptives and abortion and is set to grant privileges to families with upwards of three children. It also aims to eliminate mandatory pregnancy screenings, raising the risk of mother/child complications and premature death. Financial support for disabled Iranians is already stretched but this law further significantly cuts disability allowance and curtails womens financial independence as it incentivizes childbearing and marriage.

Under the current economic hardships faced by Iranians due to punitive sanctions, mismanagement, and corruption, many young women will have no other choice but to marry early as a result. Additionally, many disabled Iranians will be left poor without adequate financial aid, leaving them more vulnerable to abuse and dehumanization, with them being considered financial burdens on families and the state. While the bill to Protect the Rights of the Disabled accounted for equal access to work, adequate healthcare, and at home support, the Population Growth Plan undermines all these demands by reneging on the rights of the disabled.

Disabled Iranian women face many barriers in their daily struggle within a patriarchal and ableist society. Theirs is an uphill battle to dismantle not just ableism but also misogyny. From poor accessibility to minimal welfare support and gender inequalities, disabled Iranian women face double the amount of discrimination as their non-disabled peers.

The social media link

Normalizing ableist attitudes contributes to the discrimination faced by Iranian disabled women, severely curtailing their ability to become active members of society. Social media is an opportunity to forge a link between different groups of Iranian women in the online sphere and to create solidarity through struggles to dismantle patriarchy and ableism. Unfortunately, little to no attempts are currently being made at forging allyship with the disabled community.

This is further compounded by the minimal coverage of the rights of disabled women in Iran. Within what goes viral, a narrow definition of woman, which doesnt include the voices of the marginalized, is predominant. As a result, it plays a role in the erasure of disabled voices within the online depiction of womens rights issues in Iran and to the transnational public sphere and beyond. Thus, there is a contradiction in the attempt at being intersectional by influential Iranian womens rights activists.

To truly dismantle patriarchal assumptions in Iran, ableist notions that are steeped in patriarchy must also be addressed. Disabled voices must be heard, supported, and amplified. Their struggle is not unlike womens rights activists and their rights to access dignified healthcare, equal access to work, and equal opportunities in society intersect with the rights of Iranian women to do the same. Understanding the intersectionality of the feminist and disabled causes is important in the struggle for an open society that countless activists are striving towards.

Ahou Koutchesfahani is a PhD candidate at the Department of War Studies at Kings College London. Her research is concerned with feminist politics and social movements, with a focus on Iran. Follow her on Twitter: @ahou_doe.

Thu, Jun 24, 2021

IranSourceByFatemeh Haghighatjoo

Its important to take a close look at President-elect Ebrahim Raisi's wife, Jamileh Alamolhoda, and, more importantly, how the couple will impact womens rights in Iran.

Image: Iranian journalist transcribes an interview from a tape recorder into Braille at the offices of Iran Sepid in Tehran. Iranian journalist Laleh Arabzadeh transcribes an interview from a tape recorder into Braille at the offices of Iran Sepid, a daily newspaper for the blind in Tehran September 12, 2005. The subscription newspaper, which is written and run by blind people, started in 1996 and carries news about the blind community in Iran as well as news items of general interest. Picture taken September 12, 2005. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi

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Ableism exists online amongst Iranian women's rights activists. It needs to be addressed. - Atlantic Council

About one-third of the railway line connecting Rasht and Bandar Anzali in Iran has been constructed. 11 out of 35 kilometres of track are in place already, and the lines construction proceeds despite some technical challenges, said Abbas Khatibi, the deputy director of Irans Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company (CDTIC). An important rail axis will be inaugurated next year, he added.

The Rasht-Astara railway link has been highlighted as one of the main bottlenecks in developing the International North-South Transport Corridor stretching from Russia, through the Caucasus region and Iran all the way to the Persian Gulf. Iran faced financial and technical difficulties forcing it to postpone the links construction for years.

However, now it is very close to completing a railway section that could prove crucial in extending the railway from Rasht to Astara. The Rasht-Bandar Anzali line will be complete in 2023 and is also important because it provides rail access to the Caspian Sea since Bandar Anzali is a port city.

Khatibi underlined that during the construction of the lines first section, CDTIC had to tackle multiple challenges ranging from the lack of credit resources, to the high value of agricultural lands and gardens that the line passes through, the high cost of land acquisition, and the difficulty of executive operations in swampy lands and preparation of soil materials. These factors contributed to some delays in the initial construction planning.

However, works continued and are currently proceeding quite more efficiently. Twenty-four kilometres remain for the lines completion, which will be ready in 2023. The projects total worth is approximately 155 million US dollars.

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Iran's missing North-South corridor rail link proceeds with construction - RailFreight.com

Piers, we have a problem.

I was standing inside the gilded confines of President Donald Trumps exclusive Mar-a-Lago private members resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and one of my production team was brandishing a document with a concerned look on his face.

Whats that? I asked, bemused.

This is a collection of quotes youve apparently said about President Trump in the past two years. Someone sent it to him in the last hour, and the quotes are not good. In fact, theyre really bad.

I was due to start an interview with Trump in precisely eight minutes, and it was intended to be a blockbuster exclusive to rocket-launch my new global TV show, Piers Morgan Uncensored, on Monday, April 25.

My four-camera crew were all set up in a palatial bar, I was suited, booted, made up and had been exchanging cordial small talk with Secret Service agents designated to ensure we behaved ourselves.

But as I hurriedly scanned the three-page white paper document, my heart sank.

There were several dozen comments from me, taken from columns Id written and interviews Id given, in which I was savagely critical of Trumps conduct in the last year of his presidency, from his woeful handling of the coronavirus pandemic to his refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 election, and the appalling January 6 riot at the Capitol that followed.

Whoever sent it knew exactly what they were doing.

These were by far the worst things Id ever said about a man with whom Id been friends for 15 years, but I felt they were justified when I said them, and I still do now.

In the suddenly very chilly light of a sun-kissed Florida afternoon, however, they made distinctly unhelpful reading.

Is he going to cancel the interview? I asked, trying not to panic.

I dont know, came the reply. But he is VERY upset.

See if I can go and talk to him about it, I suggested.

Twenty minutes later, I was sitting in Trumps office.

Normally, hed greet me with a cheery smile and the words, Hows my champ?, because I was his first Celebrity Apprentice on the series that made him a TV superstar.

But this time, there were no such welcoming niceties.

He was staring at me across his desk with undisguised fury, clutching the document titled Piers Morgan Comments About President Trump.

What the fk IS this? he snarled.

Then he began slowly reading out some of the quotes.

Trumps a supreme narcissist

Pause.

His pathetic antics in the past few weeks since losing the election in November have been utterly contemptible.

Pause.

Trumps now too dangerous, hes morphed into a monster that I no longer recognize as someone I considered to be a friend and thought I knew.

Pause.

Hes now acting like a Mafia mob boss.

Pause.

And all because Donalds stupendous ego couldnt accept losing and sent him nuts.

Each time he paused, he peered over the document at me, with mounting rage in his eyes.

When I won Trumps Celebrity Apprentice show in 2008, his final words to me as he announced the result were: Piers, youre a vicious guy. Ive seen it. Youre tough. Youre smart. Youre probably brilliant. Im not sure. Youre certainly not diplomatic. But you did an amazing job. And you beat the hell out of everybody youre the Celebrity Apprentice.

When he won the 2016 election, I returned the favor by sending him a card saying: Well, Donald, youre a vicious guy. Ive seen it. Youre tough. Youre smart. Youre probably brilliant. Im not sure. Youre certainly not diplomatic. But you did an amazing job. And you beat the hell out of everybody youre the President of the United States.

So we had a reasonable understanding of each others personalities, good and bad.

And it wasnt like wed never had a spat.

He unfollowed me on Twitter (he only followed around 50 accounts at the time, so this didnt go unnoticed!) in April 2020 after hed proposed using household disinfectant to fight COVID, and Id hammered him in a column for spreading batst crazy coronavirus cure theories.

But a few months later, he called me for a lengthy chat before the election and chuckled about how mean and nasty Id been about him, so I mistakenly assumed he didnt really mind me verbally whacking him from time to time.

Wrong!

Id never seen him so livid or felt so uncomfortable in his presence as I did right now in his office.

He was almost foaming at the mouth and kept shaking his head slowly and menacingly at me, like Don Corleone when he felt hed been disrespected.

There was no point in trying to deny the quotes.

Id said them, and Id meant them.

Ive always been critical of you when Ive felt you deserved it, I eventually said, but as you know, Ive also written and said many supportive things about you too. This is a one-sided hatchet job designed to stop you doing our interview.

Its definitely a hatchet job, he retorted, ON ME!

Then he read another line: January 7, 2021 President Trump needs to be removed from office. As soon as possible through new emergency articles of impeachment, which would have the additional benefit of barring him from ever running for the presidency again.

REMOVED FROM OFFICE?! he spat. BARRED FROM EVER RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT AGAIN?!

Then he threw down the document and threw me a look of withering contempt.

I thought we were friends? he shouted. This is so disloyal! After all Ive done for you? Why would you say all this about me?

I thought what you did was wrong, I replied, feeling myself beginning to sweat.

This wasnt going well.

It looked for sure like Trump was about to can the interview, which would have been a massive waste of time and money for me and our team and leave me an even more massive hole for the first show.

I was desperately thinking of some way to salvage things.

I dont intend our interview to be confrontational, I said. A lot of time has passed since I said those things, and a lot has happened in the meantime.

Why should I do it at all? he scoffed. Youre not real. Youre a fake.

No, Im just brutally honest.

DIS-honest!

You didnt make me your Celebrity Apprentice because Im a shrinking violet who sits on the fence or doesnt say what he really thinks.

We stared at each other for a few seconds, his eyes boring into mine with all the warmth of an Arctic glacier.

It was time to change the mood music.

Id love to talk about your recent golf hole-in-one, I stammered. Your playing partner Ernie Els was raving about it.

Trump sat bolt upright.

He was? Where?

In a newspaper interview I read. He said it was a brilliant shot and you played really well.

I did, I did.

Was that your first hole-in-one?

No! Ive had seven!

Seven?

This claim seemed highly implausible. (Im a keen golfer and only had one. Most amateurs havent even had that.) But this wasnt a good moment to fact-check him about his sporting prowess.

Amazing, I replied. Congrats!

Suddenly, Trump clapped his hands.

OK, I guess Ill still do the interview. I dont know why, honestly, but Ill see you down there.

My extremely fractious audience was over, and I felt a huge wave of relief as I headed back to my team.

How was he? asked my executive producer, Winnie Dunbar-Nelson, whod flown from London to oversee the interview.

Hes very annoyed, I said, more annoyed than Ive ever seen him. Spitting blood, in fact. But hes going to do it.

Ten minutes later, President Trump arrived in the interview room, and acted like nothing had happened as we posed for smiling photos together. He was even charm personified to Winnie, whom he remembered from three previous presidential interviews wed taped for my old show, Good Morning Britain, in Davos, onboard Air Force One and inside the Churchill War Rooms.

But I could sense he was still very wound up, and there was none of the usual bonhomie between us that I was used to in our many previous encounters.

Id been promised 20 minutes and feared he would cut that down to punish me.

But in the end, I got 75 minutes, by far the longest time Id ever had with him on camera, and it was a fascinating, often riveting, sometimes hilarious series of exchanges with arguably the worlds most famous person as we talked about everything from Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and nuclear weapons, to the royals, transgender athletes, Twitter and Joe Biden.

For the first hour or so, it was a perfectly normal interview, and we even shared a few laughs.

Trump displayed the extremely forthright style and brash humor that first propelled him into the White House, and certainly showed no sign of losing any of his fabled energy.

I also agreed with him about a number of issues, as I have done in the past.

Ive never been tribal or partisan about Trump of the 100 or so columns I wrote about him during his presidency, around half were positive, half negative.

But things took a dramatic downward turn when I finally brought up his refusal to accept defeat in 2020 and the appalling scenes on January 6.

I told him I believe he lost the supposedly rigged, stolen election, I repeatedly pointed out his failure to produce any evidence of the widespread voter fraud he insists occurred to rob him of his presidency, and I blamed his refusal to admit defeat for the deadly riots at the Capitol.

Then youre a FOOL! he sneered. And you havent studied!

He was back to the furious Trump hed been in his office and branded me a fool six more times, in between calling Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stupid, and his former vice president, Mike Pence, foolish and weak.

Our collective crime was that none of us agree he had the election stolen.

Now abandoning any pretense at cordiality, Trump ranted that he was far more honest than I, and again sneered that I wasnt real before haranguing me for exceeding our 20 minutes, which was particularly disingenuous given that during all our previous interviews, hed invariably decided exactly how long he wanted to keep talking.

As he bellowed insults at me for disbelieving his rigged-election bullst, it reminded me of the scene in A Few Good Men where Jack Nicholsons arrogant, deluded Colonel Jessup calls Tom Cruises military lawyer, Lt. Kaffee, a snotty little bastard for grilling him about ordering a deadly Code Red punishment on a Marine.

I want the truth, demands Kaffee.

YOU CANT HANDLE THE TRUTH! roars a contemptuous Jessup, before losing his rag, lecturing Kaffee about loyalty and honor, and then finally admitting his culpability.

I dont expect Trump to ever admit he lost the election fairly or confess to being responsible for the January 6 carnage.

Well never hear him say, Youre goddamn right I did! like Col. Jessup because, ironically, he cant handle the truth.

Incensed Trump tried to end things by declaring, Thats it! before I reminded him that we hadnt discussed his hole-in-one, which he then sat down again and did briefly before abruptly jumping to his feet, looking hateful, and barking at the shocked crew: TURN THE CAMERAS OFF!

Then he turned on his heel, and sloped angrily off through a side door, loudly muttering, SO dishonest

It wasnt a rhetorical observation.

Apparently, he was later heard denouncing me as a scumbag and saying he wished hed never done the interview.

But I thought it was the best one weve ever done together, and all the tension created by the damning document he was given gave it a crackle and energy that makes for compelling television.

As for who sent him the document in the first place, Trump told me it came from London and gave it to me to keep as souvenir of your treachery.

Mysteriously, it contains two random, very positive comparative quotes from British politician Nigel Farage, who now works as a presenter for my rival UK network GB News.

Oh, and by an extraordinary coincidence, Farage happened to have dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on April 8, just three days before I was there.

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How all hell broke loose after my fiery showdown with Trump over his stolen election claims - New York Post

That gap of information looms as the House panel works to finalize a minute-by-minute account of Trumps actions on Jan. 6, when he pushed Pence to prevent the transfer of power to Biden. Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) has remained publicly undecided about whether to seek testimony from Pence himself, noting that Pences closest advisers have cooperated fulsomely. But investigators must also confront whether Pences side of that conversation for which no Pence advisers were present is significant enough to ask him to fill in the blanks.

Its unlikely the committee will attempt to force Pence to testify. There are imposing legal obstacles for subpoenaing a former vice president, and the panel considers Pence a witness, not a target of their probe. Whether they ask for his voluntary help is another question.

An hour after the call, Pence would publicly declare what hed privately told Trump for weeks: He would not assert unprecedented power to overturn the election. Barring some unforeseen twist, Joe Biden would be the next president. Aides who had been working all morning to finalize Pences statement delayed it to give Trump a chance to address his supporters, but the decision had long been settled.

But Pences words to Trump could be significant as congressional and criminal probes of Jan. 6 advance. A federal judge has concluded that Trump more likely than not criminally conspired to obstruct Congress proceedings to finalize Bidens victory. He described Trumps pressure campaign against Pence as a coup in search of a legal theory. The select committee has also argued that Trump committed multiple crimes as he leaned on Pence to subvert the election.

Jan. 6 call logs obtained by the select committee, revealed last month by The Washington Post and CBS, show that Trump first tried to reach Pence at 9:02 a.m. But the two men did not connect. The operator, according to those call logs, left a message at 9:15 a.m. Trump had already twice tweeted that morning that Pence had the power to stop Congress from finalizing Bidens victory.

The logs dont reflect Trumps subsequent call with Pence, but a private schedule investigators obtained from the National Archives suggests the two men connected at 11:20 a.m. while Pence was in his residence and Trump was in the Oval Office. Pences chief of staff Marc Short and chief counsel Greg Jacob told the select committee that they remembered Pence receiving the call from Trump at about that time.

[A]t some point during our meeting a military aide knocked on the door and said the President was holding for the Vice President, at which point he excused himself to take the call, Short recalled.

How long was he gone? a committee attorney asked.

My best guess would be 15, 20 minutes, Short replied.

Upon his return, did he share any details of the conversation with you? the investigator asked.

No, Short said.

Jacob also recalled that Pence left the room to take Trumps call and agreed Pence didnt brief them on it when he came back.

The Vice Presidents rule was never to divulge the contents of his conversations with the President, Jacob testified.

Shortly after hanging up, Pence traveled to the Capitol to preside over the joint session of Congress.

Pences apparent privacy hasnt stopped accounts of the call from emerging. Theyve just all come from people who only heard Trumps side of it.

The same private schedule showing Trumps call with Pence also reveals who entered the Oval Office just minutes earlier, a group that appeared to be present while Trump made his final push to pressure his vice president. The list includes Trumps adult children Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric, as well as Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Jr.s then-girlfriend. Also in the room were White House aide Keith Kellogg, chief of staff Mark Meadows and counsel Eric Herschmann. Kellogg, who testified to the select committee, said he recalled seeing Eric Trumps wife, Lara, in the vicinity, though shes not listed on the schedule.

Multiple people familiar with the testimony given to the select committee about the call offered a consistent account. One of those people granted anonymity to speak candidly said witnesses described the conversation as beginning relatively pleasantly, with Trump embracing the legal advice he was given about Pences ability to send the election back to the states.

Although people in the Oval Office couldnt hear him, Pence had clearly rejected Trumps entreaties, the person indicated. Witnesses have said listeners in the room were surprised because it was the first time they recalled Pence saying no to Trump. The call deteriorated and Trump grew frustrated.

A portion of Kelloggs testimony has become public in court filings and provided a similar recollection of Trumps side of the phone call. Kellogg said he couldnt hear Pences responses but remembered Trump pushing his vice president to embrace a fringe theory intended to stop Bidens victory: sending the election back to a handful of GOP-controlled state legislatures to appoint new presidential electors.

Kellogg said he presumed Pence rebuffed Trump because Trump seemed disappointed. He recalled Trump saying something to the effect of: Youre not tough enough to make the call.

I would say [he] was frustrated, Kellogg told the committee. He hung up. And after he hung up, we went right back to speech prep. He didnt get up, walk out, yell, throw things. He just said okay and went back to the speech discussion.

Kellogg also told the select committee that Ivanka Trump turned to him at the close of the call and said, Mike Pence is a good man.

Importantly, Ivanka Trump, Guilfoyle and Herschmann, the former Trump White House lawyer, have all recently testified to the select committee and were likely asked about their recollection of the call. Aides to all three did not respond to requests for comment.

But a harsher version of the exchange described by Kellogg has emerged in books and news reports.

You can either go down in history as a patriot or you can go down in history as a pussy, Trump said, according to an account reported by The New York Times days after the Jan. 6 attack.

Months later, Trump told ABC that he wouldnt dispute the Times account. I also said You can be Thomas Jefferson or you can be no Thomas Jefferson, and you turned out to be no Thomas Jefferson, Trump recalled to ABC.

The book Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, describes some of Pences pushback on the call, quoting him as telling Trump, Ill do my job. The comment reportedly prompted furious pushback from Trump.

The select committee has used those books as a rough guide for questioning witnesses, looking to confirm reported details. But its unclear whether the panel has collected more details on Pences final words to Trump that day.

Shortly after they hung up, Trump traveled to the Ellipse to deliver his remarks to the Stop the Steal rally he assembled in Washington to pressure Pence and Congress. He told the crowd that he had just spoken to Pence, whom he referenced a dozen times in his speech.

All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people, Trump told the crowd.

I just spoke to Mike. I said, Mike, that doesnt take courage. What takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage. And then were stuck with a president who lost the election by a lot and we have to live with that for four more years, Trump continued. Were just not going to let that happen.

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Jan. 6 panel piecing together details of final Trump-Pence call - POLITICO