Mike Pence’s Handwritten Notes Expose the Insult Donald Trump Threw in Their Last Conversation Before the Jan. 6 Riots.qn

NEED TO KNOW

  • According to newly released notes taken by the former vice president while speaking to Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, the president called him a “wimp”
  • Trump wanted Pence not to certify the results of the 2020 election and falsely claimed it was rigged in favor of former President Joe Biden
  • After the call, Trump spoke with supporters who mobbed the U.S. Capitol building, resulting in multiple deaths

Donald Trump insulted Mike Pence on a call hours before the president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.

On Sunday, Oct. 26, author and ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl shared alleged handwritten notes that the former vice president, 66, took while speaking to Trump on the phone.

Donald Trump; Mike Pence

The previously unseen notes reveal that Trump, 79, once again asked Pence to refuse to certify the election results and falsely claim that it had been rigged in favor of former President Joe Biden.

During the call, which took place shortly before Trump took the stage to speak to his supporters gathered in Washington D.C. for his “Save America” rally, the president reportedly told Pence that he would “go down as a wimp” for refusing to take his side.

“If you do that, I made a big mistake 5 years ago,” Pence wrote, seemingly quoting Trump.

The notes appear to feature several other direct quotes from the conversation.

“You’re not protecting our country, you’re supposed to support + defend our country,” Pence wrote in his notes. “I said we both [took] an oath to support + defend the Constitution.”

Pence reportedly also wrote, “It doesn’t take courage to break the law. It takes courage to uphold the law.”

At one point, Pence appeared to draw an emoji of an angry face. Underneath it, he wrote, “You listen to the wrong people.” This appears to be a direct quote from Trump.

Karl shared a photo of the notes on X, noting that the picture will be included in his forthcoming book Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America, out Tuesday, Oct. 28.

The notes were seemingly taken on Pence’s planner. According to reporting by ABC News, they were obtained by special counsel Jack Smith as he was building a case against Trump for his actions on Jan. 6.

Shortly after Trump spoke to his supporters at the rally, they stormed the Capitol, where Congress was certifying the election with Pence overseeing the process. Five people died as a result of the historic events, including four law enforcement officers who later died by suicide.

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick also suffered two strokes and died hours after engaging with rioters.

Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol.Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Pence, who was in the Capitol to oversee the certification, was rushed into hiding. Members of the mob were heard shouting, “Hang Mike Pence.” The former vice president was also dubbed a traitor by the rioters.

According to a 165-page Justice Department filing released in October 2024, Trump was unconcerned about Pence’s safety on Jan. 6.

“So what?” he allegedly asked when told that his vice president was at risk.

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Trump addressed Pence’s safety in a November 2021 interview with Karl for ABC News.

“I thought he was well protected, and I heard that he was in good shape. No, because I had heard he was in very good shape,” he said at the time. When Karl referenced the threatening chants about Pence, Trump said, “Well, the people were very angry.”

“It’s common sense. It’s common sense that you’re supposed to protect. How can you — if you know a vote is fraudulent, right?” Trump continued. “How can you pass a fraudulent vote to Congress?”

Donald Trump speaks on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a "Save America Rally" near the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021

This is not the first time that it has been alleged that Trump insulted Pence during their phone call.

In June 2022, former assistant Nicholas Luna also said that Trump used the word at some point during the conversation in testimony before the U.S. House committee responsible for an investigation into the riots.

“I remember hearing the word ‘wimp.’ Either he called him a wimp — I don’t remember if he said, ‘you are a wimp, you’ll be a wimp’ — wimp is the word I remember,” Luna said.

Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump also described the conversation as being “pretty heated,” and Ivanka’s chief of staff Julie Radford alleged that Trump called Pence “the P-word.”

Reporting by The New York Times alleged that Trump told Pence that he could “either go down in history as a patriot [or] you can go down in history as a p—-.”

In July 2023, Pence said that he was “not yet convinced” that Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 were “criminal” during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union.

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