… Jan 4th (two days prior to Jan 6th) during an impassioned speech, Pence reassured the enthusiastic crowd that he stands “with President Donald Trump.”
Pence continued, telling the cheering crowd, “We've all got out doubts about the last election. I want to assure you, I share the concerns of millions of Americans about voting irregularities. And I promise you, come this Wednesday, we'll have our day in Congress. We’ll hear the objections. We’ll hear the evidence."
But Pence then went quiet after Trump claimed “The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors”. Pence maintained his silence until 12:53 on Jan 6th when Trump was nearly finished giving his Capitol speech.
At 12:53 on Jan 6th - moments before certification began - Pence’s office released a letter to members of Congress stating his position on electoral certification for the first time publicly, saying he did not believe he had Constitutional authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted.
Pence’s position that he lacked unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted was not an overtly unreasonable position. But Pence’s unexplained failure to clarify his position until Trump was near the end of his speech on Jan 6th was an issue. A big one.
Pence’s statement was released to Congress at 12:53 p.m. Four minutes later, individuals began jumping fencing located at 1st Street and at 12:58 p.m. a crowd broke “through fencing near the Peace Monument.''
To make matters even more inflammatory, Pence then sent his statement out broadly in a tweet at 1:02 EST, exactly 10 minutes before Trump wrapped up his speech before a huge crowd of tens of thousands of people.
At the moment of Pence's tweet, fencing on the Capitol steps was breached. At 1:06 pm the joint session of Congress convened to count the electoral votes. At 1:12 pm Trump finished his speech at The Ellipse.
The situation at the Capitol continued to rapidly deteriorate and at 2:08 p.m. the Capitol was placed on lockdown.
Between 2:11 and 2:18 p.m. the Capitol building was "breached" [doors were opened by Capitol Police & FBI informants] and at 2:18 p.m. the House called a recess during its debates over objections to the AZ electoral votes.
That was the end of any legal objections and debates in Congress. At 3:42 a.m. on Jan. 7, Pence certified the election results. Pence declared Biden the “President-Elect” with no further objections to the election results being heard.
Pence understood the impact and results from his words when he proclaimed that he would fight until all illegal votes were thrown out. Pence understood what it meant when he told the American people that they would have their day in Congress.
Worse still, Pence also understood the impact from his strategically timed reversal when he suddenly claimed that he lacked unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted.
Mike Pence knew what would happen.