ABC Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl says there are photos of Mike Pence hiding underground during the Capitol riot that the former vice president’s team did not want him to publish.
The journalist, who is previewing a forthcoming book, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, described to late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert how he got in touch with an “official White House photographer” who was with Pence during the several hours “he was hidden away in the bowels of the Capitol in a place no one has ever really known.” Karl said he saw all of the photographs for himself.
“It is wild to see that he was in a loading dock in an underground parking garage beneath the Capitol complex,” Karl said in a CBS clip shared by The Late Show on Monday. “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.
TRUMP DENIES PLANNING TO LEAVE GOP TO START HIS OWN PARTY
In one of the photos, Karl said an aide was showing Pence a tweet from former President Donald Trump slamming his vice president for not having “the courage” to try and overturn the results of the 2020 election while he was presiding in the Senate chamber over lawmakers certifying Joe Biden’s victory on the day of the riot.
TONIGHT! @jonkarl talks about the Jan 6th photos former VP Mike Pence doesn’t want the public to see. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/TkzrIMkeWc
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) November 9, 2021
“It kind of looks like Pence is grimacing, but you can never really tell,” he said to laughs from the audience.
Although he was able to see them, Karl said Pence’s team “refused to let me publish the photographs.” Karl surmised that the House select committee investigating the siege of Congress would be interested in viewing the photos.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Despite pressure from Trump and the chaos on Jan. 6, Pence did not try to send the results back to certain states Trump lost in November over claims of election fraud. In fact, he sent a letter to Congress saying that he did not have the power to reject Electoral College votes, dealing a blow to Trump’s hopes to deny a presidential victory to Biden.
Still, although some of the rioters were threatening Trump’s vice president, chanting “hang Mike Pence” at the Capitol, Pence has downplayed the events of the riot as “one day in January” and critiqued the media’s focus on it as being a way to distract from the Biden administration’s “failed agenda.”
