ABC Reporter Johnathan Karl has released photos of Vice President Mike Pence and his family after they were evacuated from the Capitol during the breach on January 6, when hundreds of people entered the building illegally for a few hours and disrupted Congress’s operations.
Karl had previously described the photos in his book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, but said that Pence didn’t want him to release them.
The photos depict Pence and family members sitting in his ceremonial office and in an underground loading dock where they were later evacuated. Pence’s wife Karen is shown closing the curtains in the office, fearful that the mob outside will see them there.
In this photo, taken minutes after VP Pence was evacuated from the Senate Floor, Karen Pence closes the curtains. A person in the room told me she could see the mob outside and was fearful they would see where Pence was. pic.twitter.com/RJs2nitAmE
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) June 15, 2022
Refused to leave
Pence was in the Capitol to certify the 2020 presidential election results, despite efforts by former President Donald Trump to convince him to send some of the results back to states where Trump claimed election fraud had taken place.
He was urged to leave the Capitol during the breach but refused, and he later went on to certify the electoral vote after the protesters were cleared from the Capitol.
Minutes later, Pence and his family were evacuated to a loading dock beneath the Capitol complex. That night, Pence tweeted these photos from his loading-dock hideaway after the Capitol was cleared of rioters pic.twitter.com/2Dr2otsmKB
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) June 15, 2022
“It is wild to see that he was in a loading dock in an underground parking garage beneath the Capitol complex,” Karl said on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert in November. “No place to sit, no desk, no chairs — nothing. He was in this concrete … parking garage with his family.”
“This is the vice president of the United States, and he’s … holed up in a basement,” he added.
“Just one day in January”
Former White House advisor Peter Navarro said the Capitol breach actually interfered with the administration’s plans to interrupt the vote certification, which he thinks might have succeeded without the breach.
While Pence appeared to have his resolve strengthened to certify the votes after the breach and some negative tweets about him by Trump, he later downplayed the breach as “just one day in January” and accused Democrats of trying to exaggerate the severity of the breach in order to distract from Biden’s failing administration.
Karl is trotting out the photos despite Pence’s reluctance ahead of congressional hearings on January 6.