Trump told Pence he ‘picked the wrong VP’ and ‘didn’t want to be his friend anymore’ for certifying Biden’s election win
DONALD Trump told Mike Pence he "picked the wrong VP" and "didn't want to be his friend anymore" shortly before Pence certified Joe Biden's election win, a new book claims.
The reported encounter happened as part of a tense exchange in the Oval Office on January 5, just 24 hours before a thousands-strong mob of to the US Capitol building.
According to an excerpt from the book Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Trump made a last-ditch attempt to convince Pence to overturn the results of the November 2020 vote by rejecting certification.
As the two men spoke, they could reportedly hear MAGA fans cheering and chanting outside of the White House.
'WOULDN'T IT BE COOL?'
"If these people say you had the power, wouldn't you want to?" Trump asked Pence, according to an excerpt published by .
When Pence reportedly replied he wouldn't want "any one person to have that authority", Trump countered: "But wouldn't it be almost cool to have that power?"
"No," Pence responded. "I've done everything I could and then some to find a way around this. It's simply not possible."
Most read in The Sun
It was then that Trump purportedly turned on his vice president.
"No, no, no!" Trump shouted. "You don't understand, Mike. You can do this. I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this."
On the morning of January 6, Trump is said to have called Pence and warned him: "If you don't do it, I picked the wrong man four years ago."
"You're going to wimp out," he apparently seethed.
PENCE'S INDECISION
Pence ultimately , though it was a decision he apparently tortured over to Dan Quayle, who had been the vice president to George H.W. Bush.
He allegedly reached out to Quayle over and over, asking if there was anything he could do.
When Quayle told him there wasn't, Pence is said to have pressed: "You don't know the position I'm in."
"I do know the position you're in," Quayle responded. "I also know what the law is. You listen to the parliamentarian. That's all you do. You have no power."
TRUMP'S DISAPPOINTMENT
Trump has voiced his to confirm Biden as his successor since leaving office.
He said in June that he was still "disappointed" with his former VP for not sending back the results of the Electoral College or done more about the campaign's claims of election fraud.
"Well, I've always liked Mike and I'm very disappointed that he didn't send it back to the legislatures when you have more votes than you have voters in some cases, and when you have the kind of things that were known then," Trump said.
“I was disappointed that he didn't send it back,' he continued.
“I felt that he had the right to send it back. He should have sent it back. That's my opinion.
"I think you may have found that you would have had a different president right now had he sent them back," he concluded.
Pence, in return, has previously insisted he was "proud" to certify Biden's win.
"I will always be proud that we did our part on that tragic day to reconvene the Congress and fulfilled our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United State," he said during a June speech in California.
“The truth is, there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.
“I understand the disappointment many feel about the last election.
“I can relate. I was on the ballot. But there’s more at stake than our party or our political fortunes in this moment. If we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections - we’ll lose our country.”
MCCARTHY UNDER FIRE
Peril, set to be released on September 21, also reveals that Trump is still angry with several members of the GOP who blamed him for the Jan. 6 insurrection, which led to his record second impeachment.
Drawing the former president's ire in particular, according to CNN, is House .
"This guy called me every single day, pretended to be my best friend, and then, he f**ked me. He's not a good guy," Trump said, as claimed in the book.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
McCarthy has since walked back his comments, but Trump is reportedly not buying it.
"Kevin came down to kiss my ass and wants my help to win the House back," Trump said, according to the authors.
We pay for your stories!
Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
Email us at [email protected] or call 212 416 4552.
Like us on Facebook at and follow us from our main Twitter account at