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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Ramon Antonio Vargas

Trump told Pence ‘you’ll go down as a wimp’ in January 6 phone call, book says

Donald Trump Mike Pence Joe Biden Steve Bannon United States
Former US vice-president Mike Pence
Former US vice-president Mike Pence receives the John F Kennedy profile in courage award ‘for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on January 6, 2021’ in Boston, Massachusetts, on 4 May 2025. Photograph: Faith Ninivaggi/Reuters

On the day that his supporters attacked the US Capitol because his 2020 re-election run ended in defeat, Donald Trump called his vice-president at the time, Mike Pence, and told him he would go down in history as a “wimp” if he certified the election result, a new book says.

Those details were revealed on Sunday when ABC News published a preview excerpt of an upcoming book by its political correspondent Jonathan Karl. The book, titled Retribution, cites Pence’s notes from the 6 January 2021 phone call with Trump, who was purportedly trying to shame his vice-president into refusing to certify Joe Biden’s victory weeks earlier.

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