Remember Sen Grassley's tweet about filling in for Pence?

[imaginary girl]

Grassley tweeted Jan 5 that he'd be filling in for Pence during certification of electors since Pence was not expected to be there. His office quickly announced that he meant IF Pence wasn't able to be there, but I wonder if the first version wasn't more accurate. Could that be how they planned to get around Pence's refusal to cooperate? Just have him taken somewhere else for a while? Sounds crazy, but then recall the story that came out about Pence not leaving the Capitol that day because he didn't trust the driver?

Note: this is speculation, but I wonder if Grassley didn't unintentionally give away something here ... And I think this could all have been much worse than it turned out! But we need to discover and deal with the truth about what happened in order to be prepared for what might come next.

[zuul]

2. You may be right.

And Pence thinks he still has a future in the repube party.

They brought gallows to the insurrection, they shouted "hang Mike Pence", and he was afraid to leave the Capital on January 6 because he didn't know what evil plans TFG had in store for him.

Give it up, dude. The pubes hate you and no Democrat wold ever vote for you.

[DENVERPOPS]

52. AND

he refused to leave the capitol with the Secret Service agents he didn't recognize........

[Laura PourMeADrink]

61. You made me think, that one single act speaks volumes!!!

[hlthe2b]

3. I don't think that scenario is far off the mark.

[dixiegrrrrl]

64. He was in line of succession if Pence and Pelosi were taken out.

No VP, no Pelosi, you get Grassley. So trump and Grassley.

Yeah, Grassley knew.

[Flo Mingo]

4. Pence's future

I'm sure there's room on the board of Hobby Lobby

[FalloutShelter]

5. Interesting......

Remember this from Mike Pence..."I'm not getting in the car."
The Secret Service was telling Pence to get in a car they had waiting to rush him to "Safety" away from the Capitol.
Was this part of the plan to get Pence off the premises, so when they reconvened, Grassley would take over?

Asking for a friend.

https://news.yahoo.com/mike-pence-refused-leave-capitol-205925651.html

[Bev54]

8. I would make a bet on that. Pence doesn't seem like the sharpest tool in the shed

but if he was feeling that, I would say it is highly likely that was the plan and he figured it out or someone tipped him off.

[bucolic_frolic]

15. So after asking Dan Quayle, Pence refused to cooperate with Plan A, then scotched Plan B

unwittingly by not vacating the building and his job. And he didn't even know at that point about Plan C, "Hang Mike Pence!"

I think you've hit upon something. There appear to be at least 3 pathways for VP Pence to be absent from certification.

And that doesn't even consider what confusion was going on with the bombs set at DNC and RNC HQ, which I still think was an attempt to make the resulting chaos appear non-partisan, as well as Pelosi's insistence that certification be completed that evening. Delay until the following day was yet another Plan.

Surely I've missed something?

[WheelWalker]

41. What conversation between Pence and Quayle? First I've heard mention

of such. Guess I need to get out more often.

[ShazzieB]

44. It's in Woodward's new book, "Peril."

It was all over the place for a while there.

Dan Quayle Convinced Mike Pence To Ignore Trump's Decertification Pleas: Book
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dan-quayle-saved-republic-mike-pence-donald-trump_n_614101fbe4b0628d0961ae78

[Pinback]

45. Pence called Mr. Potatoe-Head on 1/6 and asked him

whether he should go along with Trump's scheme to overturn the election results by refusing to certify the electors. Quayle told him "Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away,."

Pence appears to have been hoping Quayle would give him his blessing to enable the coup. Amazing that Quayle's ability to dissuade Pence may have helped save the republic that day.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/14/new-details-undermine-pences-supposed-hero-turn-jan-6/

[Hortensis]

26. If there's anything to this, it could be they hoped

to persuade Pence to agree to not be present, allowing someone else to take his place. But he did not agree. And his own explanation for refusing to get in the car makes sense without a plot to kidnap him.

[BlueJac]

7. Very believable

[Lonestarblue]

9. The whole point seems to have been to deny the EC votes and throw the election to the House.

Trump would have won in a House vote, and who knows what chaos would have ensued then.

[dansolo]

70. Which it wouldn't do

Any state's EV that were not counted would not be factored in to determine the majority. This was never going to the House, because Biden still had the EV majority even if every "contested" state wasn't counted.

[patphil]

10. As much as I dislike and distrust Pence, he was a key player in Stopping the Steal.

Of course the real hero here was Dan Quayle. Without him, Pence would not have had the courage to stand up to Trump.
Can you imagine the fate of the Republic being in the hands of these two guys?
Now that's a truly scary thought.
But they came through.

[pandr32]

18. My jaw dropped at "Can you imagine the fate of..."

They inadvertently came through.

[kiri]

19. real hero Aaron Van Langevelde, a Republican member of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers,

Few revere Aaron Van Langevelde, a Republican member of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers, whose courageous vote to certify Michigan's vote for Biden tilted the whole scene.

see
https://reason.com/2020/11/25/election-officials-who-put-country-over-partisanship-are-the-heroes-of-the-2020-election/

Had Langevelde voted to make a 2-2 tie, Michigan would not have gone into Biden's totals. Then Wisconsin and Pennsylvania would likely have folded for Trump. Langevelde prevented this momentum. Trump's team knew how vital this was, which is why they worked so hard on MI.

"With the other Republican on the board abstaining from Monday's vote to certify the presidential election in Michigan—a maneuver that Trump's legal team and state Republican officials were hoping would keep the outcome of the election an open question—Van Langevelde did the right thing. He acknowledged reality and voted to certify that Biden had won the state of Michigan by about 154,000 votes.

Van Langevelde is, deservingly, the hero of a must-read, deeply reported piece from Politico's Tim Alberta, who has emerged as one of the best chroniclers of the Republican Party's Trumpist takeover.

[kiri]

23. the link to

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/24/michigan-election-trump-voter-fraud-democracy-440475

"In the end, it wasn’t a senator or a judge or a general who stood up to the leader of the free world. There was no dramatic, made-for-Hollywood collision of cosmic egos. Rather, the death knell of Trump’s presidency was sounded by a baby-faced lawyer, looking over his glasses on a grainy Zoom feed on a gloomy Monday afternoon, reading from a statement that reflected a courage and moral clarity that has gone AWOL from his party, pleading with the tens of thousands of people watching online to understand that some lines can never be uncrossed.....

"with much of the GOP’s leadership class pre-writing their own political epitaphs by empowering Trump to lay waste to the country’s foundational democratic norms, an obscure lawyer from west Michigan stood on principle. It proved to be the nail in Trump’s coffin: Shortly after Michigan’s vote to certify, the General Services Administration finally commenced the official transition of power and Trump tweeted out a statement affirming the move “in the best interest of our Country.”

[stopdiggin]

59. 100% and the really terrifying part of this scenario

is not necessarily crashing about of our unhinged 45 - but the number of people in his party that were willing to entertain (and abet) in his undemocratic tantrums. We most certainly do owe profound gratitude to those that held fast and would not. And I'm not necessarily thinking Mike Pence here - although he too deserves his sop.

[patphil]

39. Yes! I had forgotten the pivotal role he played. Another true American Hero.

[Cracklin Charlie]

11. You are right to speculate.

They tried to get pence out of town. He stood his ground, and did his duty.

Time for chuck to fess up.

[Maru Kitteh]

48. You think Grassley remembers anything that took place after 1983?

Because I have some doubts.

[Captain Zero]

55. Didn't Grassley also just recently endorse Trump for 2024 because....

He doesn't want to be primaried. (?)
He was always conservative, but he also used to be principled.

Something has him afraid of Trump.
At his age you would think he would be able to tell Trump to FO.

[Cracklin Charlie]

63. He tried to stand in for Pence during certification on Jan 6

He’s likely involved. He probably thinks his position in the Senate will protect him.

[Sogo]

12. What's the rule that would have put Grassley

in that position?

[MadLinguist]

14. President pro tempore of the Senate, I think

He'd have been the longest serving senator of the majority party in the Senate at the time

[Alexander Of Assyria]

13. Pence will be subpoenaed to testify and will cooperate...blow the lid right off.

[gab13by13]

22. You forgot the sarcasm thingy.

[spudspud]

54. I think my sarcasm meter's broken.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

69. Heard Pence staff have already been delivered the talk or else papers...it's a progression ofc.

[nuxvomica]

16. So which side was Grassley on?

He wasn't among the senators who voted against certification. Was that cover, and he was part of the coup, or was he part of the group trying to stop the coup?

[malaise]

17. Great post

and I think you're right - couldn't shut his blabber mouth and gave it away - the fool is the Slobfather's tool.

[Baked Potato]

20. I'd like to hear from Dan Quayle. Under oath of course. Nt

[Grasswire2]

34. yes

We want to hear from Dan Quayle.

[Effete Snob]

21. No, I don't remember that Tweet by Grassley, could you please post it?

Even if it was deleted, it is a certainty that it would have been screencapped and posted multiple places.

I can't find any such tweet by Grassley. There were reports about things that he said, but you seem to have a pretty specific recall of:

"Grassley tweeted Jan 5 that he'd be filling in for Pence"

Where can I find this tweet?

[ramen]

24. I think this was the back and forth the tweet would have been about

https://qctimes.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/grassley-s-office-clarifies-remarks-about-joint-session-election-results/article_3a3f6669-bbb0-58a9-947f-95938cb4857e.html

dated 1.5.21

[Effete Snob]

25. Have you seen this tweet?

Yes, there are second hand stories about what was supposedly said.

The OP is about a tweet by Grassley, and asks if we remember it.

"Remember Sen Grassley's tweet about filling in for Pence?"

Do you remember that tweet? I sure don't. And you can't find it either.

Why would someone ask if people remember something that didn't happen?

[gab13by13]

27. Good catch.

[imaginary girl]

28. My bad. I remembered it as a tweet.

After looking it up, it seems it was a remark he made which was then reported on Roll Call. It was quickly "corrected" by his office, claiming that he meant he'd preside if Pence wasn't able to.

[gab13by13]

29. Even though it wasn't a Tweet,

it looks like there is enough evidence to verify that Grassley made those remarks.

[ramen]

46. I'm not on twitter and didn't look for any tweets, but was giving you

the news from that day related to the discussion the alleged tweets are mentioning. No knowledge of tweets here. That said, Grassley's quotes in the article seem to confirm the substance of OP's point.

[66 dmhlt]

65. No Tweet - Because It Was During a Phone Call

It was during a phone call w/ agriculture reporters.

[link:|

Grassley said on a call with agriculture reporters ...
During the call, Grassley initially said "we don’t expect (Pence) to be there."

[link:https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/05/us-senate-chuck-grassley-presides-pence-electoral-college-vote-congress/4139433001/|]

[wryter2000]

30. Sounds logical to me

I wonder if there's any evidence Grassley was in on the plot or likely to cooperate. He's a real old-timer and less likely than Cruz, Hawley, or Paul to help Trump out, I would guess. If we found evidence that Grassley is promoting the Big Lie, I'd say you're definitely onto something.

[imaginary girl]

32. According to Roll Call, who reported Grassley's comments,

"Grassley said he will listen to debate and that "it would be really wrong for me to say I have my mind made up.""

what would he need to make up his mind about it he simply presided over the ceremonial certification of the votes?

[BobTheSubgenius]

31. The OP says "Sounds crazy, but..."

Yet I don't think it sounds crazy at all. Consider what is known about the things these sociopaths have done. Giving Pence a fake errand, or what have you, seems will within their range.

[Grins]

33. "...this is speculation"

Paging Peggy Noonan!

“Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to."

So have at it. The Mai-Tai lady’s got ‘yer back.

[imaginary girl]

38. Thanks!

[Hekate]

35. Remember during the evacuation Pence refused to get into the waiting escape car...

He was quoted later, “I don’t trust those guys.” Pence is apparently not nearly as dumb as he looks.

[Bettie]

60. OH, he's dumb

but he's also got a well-honed sense of self-preservation.

[marie999]

36. It could be the reverse. Grassley might have been afraid Pence wouldn't certify the electors.

I don't think we will ever know the truth.

[FakeNoose]

43. I doubt that - Pence repeatedly said he would NOT go along with Chump's plan

Pence even had his media people send out a press release before January 6th, insisting that the Electors would be certified. On the other hand, Grassley was participating in the secret meetings with the others who were planning the coup. (Bannon, Giuliani, Flynn, Stone, etc.) They all knew that Pence would see that the certification went forward.

[Joinfortmill]

37. Yup.

[Sinistrous]

40. Reading this OP and the replies to it

made my blood run cold.

[Marcuse]

42. He was cursed by The Donald. Had he trusted the driver...

[SergeStorms]

47. I like your imagination, girl.

Please excuse the pun.

That's something to mull over, that's for sure. It could have been a totally different outcome had Grassley been acting VP.

[imaginary girl]

51. Lol! Nice one!

[ancianita]

49. So we'd assume Grassley and Pence can be asked to testify to the select committee, right?

[tclambert]

50. But then the Men in Black used that flashy thing on Pence to erase his memory

of how Trump's supporters almost murdered him.

[cstanleytech]

53. They might have also been trying to talk Pence into simply not showing up in order to allow

them to pull this stunt to install Trump in defiance of the majority of voters.

[ecstatic]

56. So he knew about the upcoming coup attempt? Interesting

Who knew what and when? This conspiracy is growing larger by the day.

[oldsoftie]

57. Grassley has said that he would have voted to certify

as would the NEXT in line, if pence hadnt been there.

[Mike 03]

58. Good thinking outside the box and connecting points

I had to check this thread out because Thom Hartmann mentioned in on his program yesterday.

I'm just relaying what is in several of the books (most likely "Peril" and "I Alone Can Fix It," but possibly "Frankly We Did Win This Election&quot .

The story in those books (for whatever they are worth) is that the Secret Service was in the process of trying to move Pence as well as members of Congress to locations away from the Capitol. Many refused to go, including Pelosi and Pence, stating that they wanted to certify the election that night. It's not that Pence did not leave the Capitol that day "because he didn't trust the driver." He was dead set on not leaving the Capitol period and finishing the certification to show the Insurrectionists that they hadn't won. (So were Pelosi, McConnell and I can't remember who all else).

Both Pelosi and Pence were opposed to following Secret Service orders to get into vehicles because they both knew that if they were put inside a car that the car would leave the Capitol. Pence was told, "Just sit in the car for your own safety" but he knew if he got inside the car would usher him away to the undisclosed location (which are disclosed in the books).

The way it's presented in the books, it wasn't like Pence suddenly distrusted the Secret Service in the sense they might be up to nefarious deeds. He just knew the protocol, he was aware they wanted him away from the Capitol and he didn't want to leave. Nowhere in those books is it suggested there was a plot to remove him or anyone else from the Capitol for the purpose of delaying certification or overturning the election. But something new is coming out every day so as Rachel Maddow always says, "Watch this space."

[Laura PourMeADrink]

62. Wish I could remember what this makes me think of. Another incident

In the news where a critical piece of information was incorrect, so the author said when correcting it later.

It makes me think. I don't believe in coincidences. The likelihood of someone making a crucial mistake on grassley's statement that changed the whole meaning are one in a zillion.

[SalviaBlue]

66. Thom Hartmann read your post on his radio show yesterday.

[imaginary girl]

68. Interesting. I didn't catch it. Nt