Donald Trump’s closest advisers viewed his last-ditch efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to reject the tally of state electors and overturn the 2020 election as “nuts,” “crazy” and even likely incite riots, witnesses revealed in stark testimony to the Jan. 6 committee on Thursday.
Gripping new evidence also detailed how the mob that stormed the Capitol that day came within 40 feet of where Pence and his team were sheltering, highlighting the danger Trump had put him in.
And the danger to democracy is far from over, according to one of the witnesses who testified Thursday: retired federal Judge Michael Luttig, a conservative from whom Pence had sought advice, who suggested that “Donald Trump, and his allies and supporters, are a clear and present danger to American democracy.”