Revealed: Trump Allegedly Criticized Pence as ‘Wimp’ During Jan. 6 Call, New Book Claims

In a call on the day of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots, President Trump told former Vice President Mike Pence that he would “be remembered as a coward,” according to revelations in a forthcoming book.

Trump allegedly criticized Pence for his decision not to obstruct the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, reportedly saying, “You’ll go down as a wimp,” according to notes taken by Pence during the conversation. These details were shared in a report by ABC News.

The book, authored by ABC News’s Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, is titled “Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign that Changed America.” It recounts Trump telling Pence, “If you do that, I made a big mistake five years ago,” referring to having chosen Pence as his running mate.

ABC News featured these insights in a report released on Sunday, ahead of the book’s official release on Tuesday.

This disagreement over the events of January 6 contributed to the estrangement between Pence and Trump, eventually prompting Pence to pursue his own presidential campaign for 2024.

Pence did face great danger on Jan. 6. A former Situation Room officer interviewed by ABC more than a year ago said Pence came “close” to being killed during the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“It’s important to me that we don’t forget that it did come that close, and that we did have discussions, ‘If we lose the [vice president,] if the 25th [Amendment] is invoked,’” Mike Stiegler said in an interview in May 2024 with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “We started running through all of these game plans because it was getting close.”