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Salon
Salon
Politics
Sarah K. Burris

Pence blames Jan. 6 on Lincoln Project

Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Never Trumper group The Lincoln Project, attacked former Vice President Mike Pence after an excerpt of his new book was published in the Wall Street Journal.

As part of the book, Pence talks about an ad in which the Lincoln Project taunted Pence and Trump after the election.

"In a Dec. 5 call, the president for the first time mentioned challenging the election results in Congress," wrote Pence. 'By mid-December, the internet was filled with speculation about my role. An irresponsible TV ad by a group calling itself the Lincoln Project suggested that when I presided over the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes, it would prove that I knew ''it's over,' and that by doing my constitutional duty, I would be 'putting the final nail in the coffin' of the president's re-election."

Pence said that it was the "first time anyone implied I might be able to change the outcome. It was designed to annoy the president. It worked. During a December cabinet meeting, President Trump told me the ad 'looked bad for you.' I replied that it wasn't true: I had fully supported the legal challenges to the election and would continue to do so."

What was already afoot was an organization trying to change the electoral and get "fake electors" submitted to Pence that day, forcing him to choose. That plan began Nov. 18, when the first memo was sent from attorney Kenneth Chesebro to attorney James Troupis. It was long before the Lincoln Project dropped its ad. The Financial Times did an article on the Jan. 6 certification on Nov. 18 as well.

By Dec. 4, 2020, the Washington Post was reporting that members of Congress were going to protest the certification on Jan. 6.

The Lincoln Project ad dropped on Dec. 8, 2020, well after Pence's own party was pushing for the Jan. 6 protests.

In his tweet, Wilson said he "cannot get over Mike Pence blaming the Lincoln Project for Jan. 6. Cannot."

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