Donald Trump Is Trying To Establish An Insanity Defense To His Prosecution

We know that Donald Trump is a nihilistic sociopath with a Narcissistic Personality Disorder. But this is just fucking crazy. Trump says congressional investigators should examine why Pence didn’t reject electoral college results:

Former president Donald Trump on Tuesday advocated a new focus for congressional investigators: why then-Vice President Mike Pence did not take steps on Jan. 6, 2021, to reject electoral college votes from several states won by Joe Biden.

Trump’s exhortation came two days after he created an uproar with a statement suggesting Pence should have “overturned” the election as he presided over the counting of electoral college votes by Congress.

Trump’s admission, in writing, to a seditious conspiracy.

“He could have overturned the election.” This is an admission, and a massively un-American statement. It is time for every Republican leader to pick a side… Trump or the Constitution, there is no middle on defending our nation anymore. pic.twitter.com/Bp3dfn7cBe

— Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) January 31, 2022

In a fresh statement Tuesday, Trump offered a more nuanced take on what he would have liked to have seen from Pence, saying he “could have sent the votes back to various legislators for reassessment after so much fraud and irregularities were found.”

No fraud or irregularities were ever established in over 60 lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign or his supporters.

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1479125070232576005

[In] his role as president of the Senate, Pence was at the Capitol to preside over the [ceremonial] counting of the electoral votes on the day when a pro-Trump mob breached the building in an effort to prevent him from officially affirming Biden’s win.

Pence repeatedly told Trump in the lead-up to Jan. 6 that he did not have the power to overturn the 2020 election [he is correct], and Trump would regularly ask him to listen to other advisers or read other arguments that said he did.

Members of both parties are looking at changes to the Electoral Count Act, a law that governs what Congress should do in the case of any disputes about which candidate won in a state. Among the changes under consideration is making it more explicit that the role of the vice president is merely ceremonial.

Trump in recent days has seized on the latter issue, claiming it bolsters his case that Pence did have power to reject votes from some states. Democratic lawmakers have rejected that interpretation, saying they are trying to remove any ambiguity from the [poorly written] law.

The planned overhaul of the act intends to clarify that the vice president’s role in certifying the Electoral College result is ceremonial, thus preventing a future president from ever exerting the kind of pressure to subvert democracy that Trump put on Pence.

In his statement Tuesday, Trump took renewed aim at the House select committee examining the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying it was filled with “political hacks, liars, and traitors.”

“Political hack, liar, and traitor” – so much psychological projection from this treasonous traitor.

Trump said a better focus for the committee would be “why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!”

Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, is among those who have testified before the select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.

CNN adds, Exclusive: Mike Pence’s former chief of staff testifies in House January 6 investigation:

Marc Short, former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, quietly testified before the House select committee investigating January 6 last week in response to a subpoena, sources tell CNN, in the most significant sign to date that Pence’s team is cooperating with the probe.

Short, who was with Pence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and participated in a critical White House meeting on January 4, 2021, is seen as a potentially crucial witness in the committee’s investigation as the panel pieces together the pressure campaign then-President Donald Trump and his allies waged to try to convince Pence not to certify the presidential election.

Short testified before the select committee in person last Wednesday in a lengthy session, according to a source familiar with the matter.

[It is] customary that witnesses hand over more documents when they testify, according to another source familiar with the matter.

Short’s testimony, obtained after months of discussions between his attorney Emmet Flood and lawyers on the committee — as well as a subpoena — comes as the panel still does not know whether Pence himself will testify.

Short appeared before the committee last week, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Pence does not plan to appear before the committee, but besides Short, Pence’s top lawyer, Greg Jacob, met with the committee on Tuesday.

CNN adds:

While the committee has had early, informal discussions with Pence’s legal team and hopes he will cooperate in some way, multiple sources told CNN that Pence would prefer aides like Short act as the former vice president’s “proxy” so Pence himself does not have to appear.

Pence is seeking to walk a tightrope between affirming that he did the right thing on January 6 and the fact that he will need the support of Trump’s base, which falsely believes the 2020 election was stolen, to gain traction in a 2024 Republican presidential primary. Pence has been vague about how much he will cooperate with the committee, and his advisers have pushed back in the media after committee members praised Pence as a “hero” and “patriot.” [He is neither.]

“This is all a political calculation because he wants to run for president. Somehow he thinks he can straddle and do the right thing but not alienate the base,” one source said.

CNN reports, Another top aide to Pence is meeting with January 6 committee:

Greg Jacob, a top aide to former Vice President Mike Pence, met with the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot on Tuesday.

“We’re glad he came. And obviously it’s part of the work that we do,” Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who chairs the panel, told CNN of Jacob later Tuesday. “He’s a great patriot. He loves this country more so than other people who don’t.”

As Pence’s general counsel, Jacob played a critical role in countering efforts to persuade the former vice president not to certify the electoral results. He was part of the vice president’s team that pushed back against John Eastman, the conservative lawyer who embraced fringe legal theories about the vice president’s ability to overturn the election.

The committee has long considered Jacob a potential fact-witness in their probe. But he became more prominent following a report in The Washington Post, which CNN has confirmed, that Eastman, who was advising Trump, sent Jacob an email during the riot blaming Pence for causing the violence at the US Capitol.

Members of the mob that day shouted “Hang Mike Pence!” and erected a gallows on the west side of the Capitol. As the building was under siege, Pence and his family were whisked into a hideaway, narrowly escaping the attackers, before being taken to a more secure location elsewhere in the complex.

Yet the pathetic Pence will not voluntarily testify to the January 6 Committee. He is no patriot.

Pence is expected to address and defend his decision to certify the election during a speech Friday in Florida to the Federalist Society.

Note: Neil Gorsuch speech to Federalist Society on Friday will be closed to the press: The schedule on the organization’s website notes, “The banquet is closed to press.” What are they trying to hide?

Trump and Pence are both expected to appear at a Republican donor retreat in New Orleans in early March. Pence allies have said he will consider a presidential bid, even if Trump runs for the White House again.

I’m really not sure who is crazier, Trump or Pence.