According to reporting from NBC investigative reporter Scott MacFarlane, numerous concerned American citizens swarmed now-former Vice President Mike Pence with emails, calling on him to take action with regard to then-President Donald Trump’s behavior and actions surrounding the infamous January 6th Capitol riot. Ultimately, many of them wanted Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and oust Trump for his role in inciting such violence on that fateful day.
MacFarlane put out a tweet recently, revealing that a FOIA request that sought internal emails from the Trump administration actually exposed numerous calls from the public to Mike Pence to either remove Donald Trump from his position of power via the 25th Amendment or to impeach him once again, this time for his involvement in the Capitol attack.
MacFarlane, whose tweet was accompanied by screenshots of the emails in question, explained, “Freedom of Information Act, internal Trump Admin. emails show Donald Trump’s Cabinet received requests from outraged citizens on January 7th… asking they invoke the 25th Amendment.”
SCOOP: Via the Freedom of Information Act, internal Trump Admin. emails show Donald Trump’s Cabinet received requests from outraged citizens on January 7th… asking they invoke the 25th Amendment
“President Trump has spent months inciting these events” pic.twitter.com/3CpAAPNmxK
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) September 5, 2021
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
Pence, who defied Trump by refusing to derail the certification of the 2020 presidential Electoral College vote despite the ex-president’s adamant demands, received one email that pleaded, “When the Vice President and the entire Congress have to be HIDDEN in order to be safe from the actions of the President of the United States, it is time to permanently and completely remove the President from power.”
The same individual went on to add, “I urge you to immediately do everything to bring that about.”
Another American citizen wrote to former Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette the day after the Capitol attack, matter of factly referring to the day’s events as an “insurrection,” adding, “The January 6th attack that left four Americans dead was not a random event. President Trump has spent months inciting these events through his anti-democratic rhetoric and actions. Now is not the time for small steps and half-actions.”
And, of course, it wasn’t just a flood of emails that called for Trump’s removal from power on the heels of that fateful day. Historian Michael Beschloss tweeted, “We are now witnessing a primal threat to our democracy. Constitutional remedies may include 25th Amendment and impeachment and removal of the President.”
Former White House official Joe Lockhart weighed in with a tweet reading, “The cabinet should convene and remove the President under the 25th amendment. We have a President who is now engineering a violent coup attempt.”
If only Pence had listened.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
