Pence confirms he took notes on Trump about overturning election

Former Vice President Mike Pence has confirmed that he took notes on his conversations with former President Trump leading up to the Jan. 6 riot, as Trump repeatedly pressured him to reject the results of the 2020 election during the certification in Congress.

“From time to time, particularly at important moments, I had a practice of scribbling a note or two on my calendar, just to memorialize it and remember it,” Pence said in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” that aired Sunday. 

“I generally didn’t make a practice of taking notes in meetings over the four-year period of time, but given the momentous events that were unfolding, I did take a few notes to remind myself of what had been said,” he added.

The four-count indictment brought against Trump on Tuesday over his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election referenced Pence’s contemporaneous, and previously unreported, notes from the time.

The former vice president’s notes from a Jan. 4, 2021, meeting detailed various election fraud claims that Trump made as he pushed Pence to send back or reject electoral votes during the Jan. 6 certification. 

When Pence noted at the meeting that “even your own counsel is not saying I have that authority” to send the votes back to the states, Trump reportedly responded, “That’s okay, I prefer the other suggestion,” in which the former vice president would unilaterally reject the votes.

“Look, I’m a student of American history. I knew the founders of this country would never have given any one person the right to choose what Electoral College votes to accept and which ones to reject,” Pence said in the interview. 

“I was very consistent with the president about that, and my recollections all reflect that,” he continued. “But you know, at the end of the day, the president continued to hold to that view. But I knew what my duty was, and as I said, by God’s grace, we did our duty on that fateful day.”