Trump ‘blasted Pence a wimp before mob stormed Capitol’

Donald Trump is claimed to have called Mike Pence a ‘wimp’

(Picture: AP)

Donald Trump called then-vice president Mike Pence a “wimp” in a heated phone call just hours before a mob stormed the Capitol, his daughter Ivanka and White House aides said.

The insult came on January 6 last year when the president was trying to convince Mr Pence to refuse to certify Joe Biden as the winner of the election, the House committee investigating the riot heard.

Mr Trump allegedly told him: “You’re not tough enough to make the call.”

In video testimony played during the hearing, Ms Trump said: ”When I entered the Oval Office the second time, he was on the telephone with who I later found out to be was the vice-president. The conversation was pretty heated.”

She added: “It was a different tone than I’d heard him take with the vice-president before.”

Nicholas Luna, a former special aide to Mr Trump, said: “I remember the word ‘wimp’. I remember he said, ‘You are a wimp.’”

Julie Radford, a chief of staff to Ms Trump, said she told her that “her dad had just had an upsetting conversation with the vice-president”.

Ms Radford said Ms Trump said her father called Mr Pence “the P-word”.

During the session, Mr Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short, said that his boss told the former president “many times” that he did not have the authority to reject the result.

A former top adviser to Mr Pence, Gregory Jacob, said his boss “never budged” despite mounting pressure from Mr Trump that he had the power to stop the certification process, which the vice president presides over.