Archive for the ‘Mike Pence’ Category

The Secret Service gave emails to the Jan 6 committee that could explain what happened inside Trump’s limo, report says – Yahoo News

A U.S. Secret Service officer near the White House on November 8, 2020.J. Scott Applewhite/AP

In July, the House committee investigating the Capitol riots issued a subpoena to the Secret Service.

The Secret Service provided more than one million electronic communications to Jan 6 investigators.

The messages could help investigators piece together information about efforts to protect Mike Pence.

The Secret Service has provided more than one million electronic communications to congressional investigators that could help provide more clarity on what unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, two anonymous sources told NBC News.

The communications include emails and other electronic messages from agents in the days leading up to and during the Capitol insurrection, as per NBC.

According to the news outlet, the messages could help investigators piece together information about agents' efforts to protect former Vice President Mike Pence and also shed light on what may have occurred inside then-President Donald Trump's car when he allegedly demandedto be taken to the Capitol on Jan 6.

"We have and continue to fully cooperate with the Jan. 6 select committee. While no additional text messages were recovered, we have provided a significant level of details from emails, radio transmissions, Microsoft Teams chat messages and exhibits that address aspects of planning, operations and communications surrounding Jan. 6," Secret Service Special Agent Steve Kopek told NBC.

In July, The House committee investigating the Capitol riots issued a subpoena to the US Secret Service after the Department of Homeland Security inspector general accused the agency of deleting text messages when their records were requested.

Representatives for the US Secret Service did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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The Secret Service gave emails to the Jan 6 committee that could explain what happened inside Trump's limo, report says - Yahoo News

Inside the Jan. 6 committee’s closing arguments – Axios

Don't hold your breath for surprise appearances from former Vice President Mike Pence, Justice Clarence Thomas' wife Ginni or self-proclaimed "dirty trickster" Roger Stone when the House Jan. 6 committee takes the stage again on Thursday.

The big picture: The committee's last hearing before the midterms, and perhaps ever, will focus overwhelmingly on one central antagonist former President Trump and won't feature live testimony, people familiar with the plans tell Axios.

What we're hearing: Lawmakers on the panel want to minimize ancillary players becoming a sideshow and keep the focus on evidence tying Trump to the attack.

Details: The panel will refocus on Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his role in other events before, during and after the violence on Jan. 6.

Between the lines: The hearing also will serve as a closing moment on the congressional stage for the two Republicans on the panel Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) who are taking steps to solidify the legitimacy of their political leadership after being cast out of their party.

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Inside the Jan. 6 committee's closing arguments - Axios

Campaign Almanac: Miller-Meeks clears the air on abortion stance – Quad-City Times

A new ad from the Democratic challenger in the southeast Iowa congressional race claims sitting Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks wants to outlaw all abortions nationwide. No exceptions for rape, incest, or to save a womans life.

The U.S. Supreme Court this summer overturning Roe v. Wade, long-held protections for abortion until fetal viability, spurred public debate over restrictions on abortion and is seen as a key issue by Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.

Congresswoman Miller-Meeks speaks during a luncheon, Wednesday, June 29, 2022, at the Dahl Old Car Home in Davenport.

Miller-Meeks said in a September debate and has said in interviews that she supports exceptions for rape, incest, and a womans life. She endorsed a bill from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that would prohibit abortion after 15 weeks with those exceptions.

Christina Bohannans ad is referring to Miller-Meeks co-sponsoring of the Life at Conception Act, a House proposal with 163 Republican co-sponsors that would guarantee a constitutional right to life of each born and pre-born human person from the moment of fertilization without explicit exceptions.

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In an interview last week with a Quad-City Times reporter, Miller-Meeks said when asked about the Act: I think that you can recognize medically that life begins at conception, and still have exceptions, as I've already noted. So again, my long-held position in multiple public interviews has been I'm pro-life with exceptions for life of the mother, rape, and incest.

Congressional candidate Christina Bohannan, a Democrat from Iowa City, will be in Davenport on Tuesday for a roundtable with health care officials about abortion.

Bohannan continues in the ad: I never imagined my daughter would grow up having fewer rights than I had. Im fighting to protect our right to choose. When it comes to our bodies, women should be in charge, not Washington politicians.

Iowa Sen. Kevin Kinney releases ad celebrating "Noah's law"

Iowa Sen. Kevin Kinney, a Democrat from Oxford, released his second ad of the election cycle, highlighting his work on a law honoring a Tiffin teen who drowned in the Coralville Reservoir in 2020.

When Noah Herring drowned in 2020, the people with him did not call for help, according to reports at the time, and did not tell the Johnson County Sheriffs office where his body was.

In the ad, Noahs cousin, Amber Herring, sitting with his mother Lisa Herring, tells the story of getting the law passed.

We reached out to Senator Kevin Kinney, who helped us pass a law so that what our family went through; another family does not have to go through, she says.

The ad was paid for by the Iowa Democratic Party.

The law, signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2021, makes it a crime to not call emergency responders when someone appears to be in imminent danger and increases penalties for not telling authorities the location of a corpse. Three juveniles and one adult were charged with lesser crimes related to Herrings death, but failing to alert authorities was not a crime at the time.

In a statement, Kinney said the law was a bipartisan effort and the legislation was written with input from Herrings family.

I then worked across the aisle to get Noahs Law passed unanimously, he said. Im honored to have the support of Noahs family, and I will continue to work to protect crime victims and their families in the State Senate.

Grassley announces farmers coalition

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, speaks during a lunch for Republican volunteers during the "Hearts and Minds Day" door-knocking event, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen via AP)

Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley's campaign announced the county chairs of the Farmers for Grassley Coalition, a group of farmers who support Grassleys reelection.

The campaign previously announced the leadership of the group, which includes Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, former presidents of the Iowa Farm Bureau and Iowa Corn Growers Association, and former Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey.

The list includes farmers from all of Iowas 99 counties. Grassley also announced a veterans coalition from the 99 counties in September.

Congress will rewrite the Farm Bill next year and we need a farmer to represent our interests in the U.S. Senate, Larry Madson, Shelby County farm chair, said in a news release from the campaign. ...Chuck is the strong voice we need to strengthen and sustain the family farm for generations to come. Iowa agriculture needs Chuck fighting for us more than ever.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, center, speaks to the media during a visit Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks to the media Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence walks with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, center, greets fairgoers on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, center, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, greet fairgoers on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence walks through the Varied Industries Building on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence walks with Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence talks with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence checks his watch as he walks down the concourse Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence greets a fairgoer on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, right, walks past a corn dog stand Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence greets fairgoers on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence points to a pork picnic in a cup in the Iowa Pork Producers tent on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence eats a pork picnic in a cup Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, in the Iowa Pork Producers tent during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence reacts after eating a pork picnic in a cup Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, in the Iowa Pork Producers tent during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence reacts to supporters during a stop Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, at the Iowa Pork Producers tent during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence talks with Juan Pina, right, on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence talks with a fairgoer on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks to the media Friday during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks to reporters on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Former Vice President Mike Pence greets fairgoers on Friday during a visit to the Iowa State Fair.

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Campaign Almanac: Miller-Meeks clears the air on abortion stance - Quad-City Times

Here’s a list of all Donald Trump’s visits to Arizona during his political career – The Arizona Republic

For years, Arizona has been one of former President Donald Trump's favorite spots to campaign. Here's a rundown of his visits.

July 11, 2015: Eventual Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump makes his first stop in Phoenix, focusing on immigration and helping set the tone for his upstart campaign.

Dec. 16: Trump packs the airport in Mesa a day after one of the Republican debates.

March 19, 2016: Protesters couldnt stop Trump from drawing thousands to a raucous rally in Fountain Hills the weekend before the states presidential primary. He also stopped in Tucson.

June 18: Trump packs the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on a blistering summer day.

Aug. 31: Trump outlines his hard-line plans for dealing with immigration and border security in a widely anticipated speech in Phoenix. Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence was on hand for the event.

Oct. 4: Trump tries to energize his conservative base at a stop in Prescott Valley.

Oct. 29: Trump schedules a record-breaking seventh Arizona stop in a visit to the Phoenix Convention Center.

Feb. 19, 2020: President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, touting the national economy.

May 5: Trump tours a Phoenix Honeywell facility making respirator masks to cope with the coronavirus pandemic and discusses aid to Native Americans.

June 23: Trump addresses a church full of mostly maskless young people in Phoenix amid a pandemic that followed his disastrous, half-empty rally in Tulsa days earlier. He visited the border wall in Yuma earlier in the day.

Aug. 18: Trump visits Yuma during the Democratic National Convention to highlight his record on building a border wall and attack his Democratic opponents ambitions on immigration.

Sept. 14: Trump holds a roundtable event with a group called Latinos for Trump at the Arizona Grand Resort in an effort to pull in support with a demographic that could be key to carrying the swing state.

Oct. 19: On a day overshadowed by his private insults for epidemiologist Anthony Fauci, Trump targets his base in a hangar visit to Prescott and seeks to boost GOP turnout in a Tucson hangar stop.

Oct. 28: On a day that broke the states record for presidential-ticket visits, Trump held rallies in Bullhead City and Goodyear.

July 24, 2021: Trump attends a Turning Point Action rally in Phoenix and predicts the ongoing ballot review would vindicate his claims of a stolen election.

Jan. 17, 2022: Trump packs 15,000 into a rally in Florence to hear him lament a stolen election, rip President Joe Biden and tease at another run.

July 22: Trump boosted his Republican picks ahead of the August primary at an event in Prescott Valley. It dwarfed events held the same day involving Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Oct. 9: In his third Arizona visit of the year, Trump is expected to urgeRepublicans to support Kari Lake, Blake Masters and the rest of his GOP picks in the midterm elections during the rally in Mesa.

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Here's a list of all Donald Trump's visits to Arizona during his political career - The Arizona Republic

Exclusive: Inside the Sh*tshow That Was the Trump-Biden Transition – Vanity Fair

In July, when Trump was asked if hed accept the results of the election, he replied, Ill have to see, then added, I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election. A few months later, from the podium in the East Room, Trump declared, There won't be a transfer; frankly, there'll be a continuation. Still, Liddell kept the train on the tracks.

By law, the sitting White House chief of staff, Meadows, and the transition chairman, Kaufman, were required to sign a Memorandum of Understanding. Fat chance, thought Kaufman. But he sent a draft to the West Wing anyway. I figured that's never going to happen, he said. This is totally against Trumps interests. He'd kill people if he found out it happened.

And yet, on September 30, Kaufmans fax machine suddenly clanked to life and back came the memorandum---signed by Meadows. Trumps chief of staff almost certainly never told his boss. I have it here as one of my prized possessions, Kaufman, who saved the memo, told me. I never in a million years thought Meadows would sign it.

November 3, 2020, Election Day, seemed remarkable for its lack of drama. Despite the pandemicand predictions of outside meddling, chaos at the polls, and confusion over mail-in ballotsvoting had been a model of fairness and efficiency. Though the final results werent immediately clear, Biden would win decisively: 306 to 232 in the Electoral College, and by a margin of seven million in the popular vote. But Trump, defying his closest advisers, declared himself the winner, and the victim of a grand conspiracy. The real drama was yet to come.

Traditionally, the day after a presidential election, the GSA anoints the apparent winner. The act, known as ascertainment, not only formally acknowledges the victor; it also makes available to the incoming administration office space, funding, access to federal agencies, intelligence briefings, and other vital governing infrastructure. But in a startling break with precedent, the GSA administrator, Emily Murphy, a Trump appointee, refused to ascertain Bidens victory.

This was no idle act. Ascertainment is not a ceremonial process, explained Mary Gibert. It has potential life and death implications. The Biden team was furious. Between the election and inauguration, they had just 78 days to ramp up their administration. Theyd recruited 500 volunteers to visit every federal agency and report back on who was doing what. Now they were sitting on their hands.

Bidens contingent had prepared for almost any eventuality. We had 600 lawyers working long, long hours, producing thousands of pages of memos for all sorts of stuff, said Bob Bauer, the campaign senior legal adviser. This was a genuine national security issue: The fact that the president-elect of the United States would be denied access to the tools and the resources for an effective transition was literally, directly, every day, harmful to the countryand in the middle of a public health crisis. Bauer and his team were prepared to sue Murphy and the GSA. But after a spirited debate, the campaign decided to stand down.

A few days later, Liddell called his confidants Marchick and Bolten. "Remember that dinner we had where we talked about the nightmare scenario? Liddell asked. That's what we have." The nightmare scenario was Trump losing the election, but not by enough to convince him that hed lost. Marchick explained: Clearly, Liddell was in meetings in the White House where Trump said, We're going to fight this and we're going to overturn it. Marchick feared Liddell was near the end of his rope. He thought about quitting many times---and wed say, Hey, you can't quit.

Kaufman, Klain, and company were, in effect, designing an airplane in mid-flight. Barred by Trump from access to the agencies, they set up a shadow agency process, compiling lists of former officialsand tapped their expertise. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to call the Senate back in sessionso they interviewed, vetted, and hired officials who didnt require confirmation. This was the Biden transition's innovation, explained Marchick. They lined up thousands to go into the government in these non-confirmed positions so they could staff the government on Day One. They did 8,000 interviews in order to place 1,100.

Finally, on November 23, GSA administrator Murphy declared Biden the winner. But the foot-dragging had been costly. Every day Bidens team couldnt access information about Trumps vaccination program meant delays in getting shots into peoples arms. Every day Bidens team was denied intelligence briefings meant less time to prepare for potential foreign crises. On January 20 at noon, all CIA covert operations ordered by Trump would immediately belong to Biden. During previous transitions, the major party nominees would receive the Presidents Daily Brief (PDB) after their party conventions. Biden and the vice president-elect, Kamala Harris, didnt get their first intelligence briefing until November 30.

Remember that dinner we had where we talked about the nightmare scenario? Thats what we have.

Meanwhile, Trump, to many observers, appeared intent on staging a coup. Hed replaced the secretary of defense and reportedly installed apparatchiks in high places at the CIA. Some worried that he might start a war with Iran as a pretext to stay in power. In response, Liz Cheney, the Wyoming congresswoman, corralled every living former defense secretary, including her father, Dick Cheney, into signing a letter exhorting the military to follow the Constitution. And General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was preparing emergency contingencies. He suspected Trump might stage a domestic crisis to seize powera favorite ploy of autocrats who want to stay in office by exploiting voters fears. In the event of an illegal presidential order, Milley and other top Pentagon officials reportedly made a secret pact to resign, one after another.

To avoid the appearance of a power grab, Bidens camp didnt speak directly with Milley. Instead, they communicated through an intermediary, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I asked Ted Kaufman if the speaker kept the president-elect informed of Milleys contingency planning. Oh, sure, he said. Absolutely.

Outwardly, the Biden team projected equanimity. As Klain explained, Our whole thing was basically a legal strategy to shut this down in the courtsand a political strategy based on the idea that we won, so we were going to act like we won. We played this out a step at a time: to first get the vote confirmed by the media, to build a sense of inevitability around that, to finally get the GSA to certify us. An adviser to the Biden transition put it this way: We don't need to send up fighter jets to force Air Force One down. Let's just let Trump throw his fit, pursue his legal theories. It'll all fail and he'll run short of fuel and come down for a landing.

As far as Chris Liddell knew, January 6, 2021, promised to be a quiet day. Bidens victory was to be certified by Vice President Mike Pence in a routine count of electoral votes at the U.S. Capitol. Liddell, who was doing his best to stay inconspicuous, could hardly wait. I woke up in the morning in a good mood, thinking: Finally, we're going to get some resolution, he said. The vote's going to happen. Liddell looked at the presidents schedule and noticed a rally on the Washington Ellipse at noon. But he thought little of it. His focus was on the 14 days between then and the inauguration.

Biden legal adviser Bob Bauer was on edge. The truth was that democracy hung by a thread. Bauers team had spent months preparing for this dayand for all the things that could go wrong. Legal scholars agreed that Pences role in the certification procedure was purely ceremonial. But that didnt mean that the vice president couldnt plunge the country into a constitutional crisis.

One option was for Pence to delay the certification. That was the goal of Trumps lawyer John Eastman, Giuliani, and their co-conspirators. A delayed certification could give states an opportunity to try to replace slates of Biden electors with new ones pledged to Trump. Another option was to declare some Biden slates invalid, thereby denying him the required minimum: 270 votes. This would throw the whole process into the House or Representatives. Under the law, in the Houses election of a president, each state delegation would have one vote. And since Republicans in the 2021 House were the majority party in 26 states, Trump would have almost certainly prevailed.

If Pence tried to do Trumps extra-legal bidding, Bauer and his team were poised to file for an injunction. The issue would probably wind up in the Supreme Court, now stacked with three Trump-appointed justices. Yet Bauer believed Biden had the upper hand. If Pence had gone completely rogue, I think we had a very good chance of stopping it, he told me. I thought Trump and his legal team, such as it was, would be crazy to imagine that the court would somehow save him in these circumstances.

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Exclusive: Inside the Sh*tshow That Was the Trump-Biden Transition - Vanity Fair