New details have surfaced about how then-Vice President Mike Pence, second lady Karen Pence and other Pence family members hid from rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence, who reportedly was taken to a room away from the Senate floor, was photographed as he sat in a chair and as his wife closed the curtains on the pro-Donald Trump mob outside the Capitol, ABC News revealed as it showed an exclusive photo (shown here) from the day of the attack.
A source told ABC News that a “worried” Karen Pence closed the curtains as she saw rioters outside the window.
The photo was taken just after Pence and other family members ― including his brother, Rep. Greg Pence, and his daughter Charlotte Pence ― were taken out of the Senate chamber as the mob pushed further into the building, ABC News said.
Earlier that day, then-President Donald Trump held a rally at the Ellipse in which he urged the crowd to go to the Capitol, where Congress was meeting to certify the electoral votes that had given the presidential victory to Joe Biden, a process Pence presided over. Trump falsely told his supporters the election had been “stolen.”
A number of the rioters shouted “Hang Mike Pence” as they pushed into the Capitol building. A symbolic gallows was erected on the grounds.
The House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, disclosed that, while the riot was underway, Trump said maybe his vice president deserved to be hanged.
Trump, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, wrote that he never said the phrase “Hang Mike Pence.”