More On: Mike Pence
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She made the comments after a meeting on January 6 last year when President Trump was in the Oval Office with her and Vice President Mike Pence's national security adviser Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg on a telephone call with Pence.
Ivanka Trump said, 'Mike Pence is a good man,' after he declined her father's request to reject Electoral College votes that would have confirmed Joe Biden's 2020 win.
She made the remarks during a meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office on January 6, last year, during which she and Vice President Mike Pence's national security advisor Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg were on a phone conversation with Pence.
Her remark comes only ten days after Pence said he hadn't talked to Trump since last summer.
He stated that January 6, 2021 will be the end of their relationship. That day, prior of the Capitol brawl, Trump stated Pence "didn't have the fortitude" to protest to the election results during Congress' certification.
On his broadcast Thursday evening, Fox News' Jesse Waters questioned Pence when the last time he talked with Trump.
'You know, we talked last summer,' Pence said. 'And, you know, I've said many times, it was difficult. Jan 6 was difficult. It was a tragic day in the life of the nation.'
'I know I did my duty under the Constitution of the United States,' Pence added. 'But the president and I sat down in the days that followed that. We spoke about it, talked through it. We parted amicably.'
Trump informed Pence once again that he had a responsibility to reject Electoral College votes that would have formalized Democrat Joe Biden's win in the 2020 presidential election, something the vice president had no power to do in his ceremonial capacity in Congress that day.
'You don't have the courage to make a hard decision,' Trump told Pence, according to congressional testimony. Even after Trump called him a 'wimp,' Pence rebuffed the demand, issuing a lengthy statement afterward laying out his conclusion that he had no power to influence the outcome.
When the call ended, Ivanka Trump turned to retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg and said, 'Mike Pence is a good man.'
'Yes, he is,' Kellogg replied.
And, on January 31, Trump hinted for the first time that he intended Mike Pence to reverse the 2020 election when the vice president presided over a joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College vote tally on January 6, 2021.
Trump cited attempts on Capitol Hill to modify the Electoral Count Act, including tightening the wording to make it clear that the vice president's role is limited to counting votes and cannot reverse the decision of the people.
'Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away,' Trump claimed. 'Unfortunately, he didn't exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!'
The House committee looking into the riots now wants to know what more Ivanka Trump heard and observed that day as they attempt to piece together the story of the riots and the former president's involvement in provoking them.
Many of Trump's top supporters worked feverishly to urge him to intervene, with some even attempting to use his daughter as a conduit.
According to a committee aide, they are hoping that she will soon commit to a meeting time.
Ivanka Trump was renowned as a rare voice in the White House who could get through to her father and persuade him out of disastrous choices, but her effectiveness was uneven.
Since her father left government, the former first daughter has maintained an unusually low profile, and she has distanced herself from him and politics since relocating to Florida.
However, her closeness to him on Jan. 6 may have provided the committee with direct access to what Trump was doing during the key three hours when his supporters violently stormed the Capitol.
'Ivanka Trump knows information about what happened leading up to and on Jan. 6 and about the former president's state of mind as events transpired,' said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., a member of the panel.
It is rare for congressional investigators to pursue a president's family member, but as a key advisor to her father, she was also in a position of authority.
Kellogg revealed the conversation with the committee, but Ivanka Trump, who notoriously controls her image and public profile, has yet to speak with the panel.
The responses might have far-reaching consequences not just for Donald Trump, who is planning a political return in 2024, but also for others in the Republican Party who have minimized his participation in the insurgency.
Ivanka Trump's spokesperson did not reply to several requests for comment. However, a representative for her stated in late January that Ivanka Trump did not speak at the rally near the White House where the then-president urged his supporters to 'fight like hell' as Congress convened to certify the 2020 election results, and that she still believed that 'any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable.'
Members of the group aspire to get beyond such speculative claims.
Ivanka Trump joined her brother Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, and Kimberly Guilfoyle beneath a big tent at the gathering to listen to Trump's address hours after Trump's call to Pence.
She allegedly informed advisers that she 'agreed to come primarily to soothe the president and assist keep the event on an even keel.'
As rioters proceeded to crash through Capitol police barricades and damage windows after Trump's address, the former president tweeted, 'Mike Pence didn't have the bravery to do what should have been done to safeguard our Country and our Constitution...'
According to court evidence, the tweet merely fueled the mob's rage.
According to Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary, Trump's attention was so rapt that he pushed replay and watched crucial scenes again back in the White House, while colleagues watched in horror on television screens positioned around the West Wing.
'Look at all of the people fighting for me,' Trump said, according to Grisham, who also served as chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump. At one point, the president was confused why staffers weren't as excited as he was watching the unrest unfold.
Kellogg testified that staff wanted the president to take immediate action to address the violence consuming the Capitol, but Trump refused.
'Is someone getting to potus? He has to tell protestors to dissipate. Someone is going to get killed,' Alyssa Farrah Griffin, a former White House communications official, texted Ben Williamson, an aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
'I've been trying for the last 30 minutes. Literally stormed in outer oval to get him to put out the first one. It´s completely insane,' Williamson wrote back.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., then called Ivanka Trump, pleading that the president 'ask people to leave.'
'We´re working on it,' she replied.
Trump pointed to efforts on Capitol Hill to change the Electoral Count Act, including firming up the language to make clear that the vice president is only there to count votes and can't override the will of the voters
Staffers confirmed at the time that, despite attempts by Meadows, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and Kellogg, the only person who could reach him would be his daughter.
According to testimony, Ivanka Trump went on to make at least two 'tenacious' efforts to reason with her father as workers were flooded with texts from Trump supporters pleading with him to stop the violence.
'Is he allowed to make a statement?' I noticed the tweet. 'Request that people vacate the (Capitol),' Fox News personality Sean Hannity texted Meadows.
However, within the West Wing, Kellogg strongly advised against asking the president to appear in the press room, where a swarm of reporters would be waiting for him.
'Apparently, certain White House staff believed that a live unscripted press appearance by the President in the midst of the Capitol Hill violence could have made the situation worse,' lawmakers wrote in their letter to Ivanka Trump.
The president ultimately agreed to a video statement. Multiple takes were filmed but not used. In each one of the initial takes, according to the committee, he failed to ask rioters to leave.
The final video was released on Twitter at 4:17 p.m. - nearly two hours after Trump´s initial tweet criticizing Pence.
'This was a fraudulent election, but we can´t play into the hands of these people,' Trump said in the video. 'We have to have peace. So go home. We love you; you´re very special.'
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice head of the House committee examining the Jan. 6 insurgency, has said it's difficult to "imagine a more major and egregious breach of duty" than Trump's inability to put down the rioting.
At 6:01 p.m., Trump tweeted that the 2020 election had been 'unceremoniously and violently snatched away from great Americans who have been horribly and unjustly treated for so long.'
He said, 'Go home with love and peace.' 'I'll never forget this day.'
The committee has been interrogating witnesses aggressively – over 500 so far – and has subpoenaed Meadows and Trump's personal lawyer. They are requesting that Ivanka Trump engage freely.
