Official says Pence’s Secret Service detail called loved ones ‘to say goodbye’ during Jan. 6 attack [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Former VP Mike Pence’s security detail made “very personal calls over the radio” as the mob approached on January 6, 2021.
• The Secret Service agents called their loved ones to “say goodbye,” a former White House security official told the Jan. 6 committee.
• “The VP detail thought that this was about to get very ugly,” the official ddded.

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s security detail was concerned for their safety that they called their loved ones to “say goodbye” as the violent crowd grew closer to the VP.

An anonymous security official told that information to the Jan. 6 committee in an interview aired Thursday. He said he was listening to radio communications coming from the then-vice president’s security detail and overheard the fear in their voices.

The security official’s voice was modified in the interview to protect his identity.

“The members of the VP detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives.”The official added that “there was a lot of yelling, a lot of very personal calls over the radio, so it was disturbing.”

“But there were calls to say goodbye to family members, so on and so forth,” the official continued. “It was getting — for whatever the reason was on the ground — the VP detail thought that this was about to get very ugly.”

The testimony from the security official aired Thursday in primetime following the bombshell revelations from Cassidy Hutchinson. The former White House aide testified that former president Donald Trump was aware his supporters were carrying weapons in D.C. on Jan. 6. Hutchinson also said that Trump lunged at a member of his own Secret Service detail inside the presidential SUV in an attempt to join his supporters at the Capitol that day.

The unidentified security official backed up Hutchinson’s testimony that the former president wanted to go to the Capitol himself, saying, “we were all in a state of shock,” at the notion. The person added that taking the president to the Capitol would mean the rally would “move from a normal, Democratic .. public event into something else.”

“The president wanted to lead tens of thousands of people to the Capitol,” the security official said, in the pre-recorded audio. “I think that was enough grounds for us to be alarmed.”

The crowd was heard chanting “Hang Mike Pence” and even built a noose and gallows outside of the Capitol building. 

Trump defended the “Hang Mike Pence” chants in his March 2021 interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. He said it was “common sense” because “the people were very angry.”

“I thought he was well protected, and I heard that he was in good shape,” Trump told Karl, who interviewed him for his book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show.

Source: PEOPLE