'The system held, but barely': Jan. 6 hearings highlight a handful of close calls
By KYLE CHENEY and NICHOLAS WU, POLITICO
06/22/2022 04:31 AM EDT
In the end, just a handful of people decisively thwarted former President Donald Trump’s maneuvering to subvert the 2020 election.
The pivotal pushback by a core few players willing to defy Trump is emerging as a central theme of the Jan. 6 select committee’s case in its first four public hearings — without those people, the panel clearly believes, the former president would have achieved his goal of overturning Joe Biden’s victory.
Pence and Jacob
Nearly every component of Trump’s plan revolved around then-Vice President Mike Pence succumbing to pressure. In Trump’s view, Pence — who presided over the counting of state electors on Jan. 6, 2021 — could single-handedly reject Biden’s electors or postpone the count altogether and let GOP state legislatures approve pro-Trump electors instead.
Pence, relying on the advice of his counsel Greg Jacob, balked at Trump’s strategy. Jacob and other White House lawyers repeatedly told Trump the scheme was illegal.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/22/january-6-hearings-00041182
Other chart-topping hits from that day include Raffensperger’s refusal, The DOJ mass resignation threat, West Wing intervention, and Goodman’s diversion.
I hope none of these titles and phrases will be in future history books, as they will have become part of an anomalous hiccup in the American Journey.
