US President Trump spoke with Vice President Pence for the first time since the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday.
The two have consulted with each other in the White House, an anonymous, high-ranking official told Reuters and AP news agencies. There would have been a “good conversation” in the Oval Office, looking ahead to the week ahead and looking back over the past four years.
Trump and Pence also agreed, according to the high-ranking source, that the Capitol stormers do not represent the 75 million Americans who voted for Trump in the past presidential election.
Fled headlong
Trump called on Pence in a speech at the White House to his supporters on Wednesday to “do the right thing,” referring to the non-endorsement of Trump’s Democratic opponent Joe Biden’s election win.
At the time, Pence had already said that he would not intervene in that ratification, in which he mainly had a ceremonial role as vice president. Shortly after the start of the session in Congress, the Capitol was stormed by thousands of Trump supporters.
Five people were killed in the storm. Pence had to leave the Senate Hall of the historic building in a hurry. Trump accused Pence via Twitter of “lacking courage” during the storm.
The Democrats in the House of Representatives asked Pence through a resolution yesterday to invoke the 25th amendment to the constitution to relieve Trump from office. He is given 24 hours for this. Otherwise, the Democrats will ‘impeach’ Trump themselves.
Watch here how the Capitol was stormed:
More than five days after the storm, it is still raining reactions and measures. For example, large corporations in the US like Amazon, Comcast and General Electric are suspending donations to Republican politicians who refused to ratify Biden’s profits on Wednesday.
Famed American football coach Bill Belichick – a friend of Trump’s – has refused the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom award because of the storm. He would receive the award from Trump.
Furthermore, the president saw a high-ranking member of his cabinet leave. Acting Home Security Minister Chad Wolf of Homeland Security announced his departure just over a week before Biden’s inauguration.
Yesterday, the FBI warned in an internal memo of armed protest across the country surrounding the inauguration. The White House has announced that Trump has approved the declaration of a state of emergency in Washington. The state of emergency will last until January 24 and should “reduce or avert the threat of disaster”.