Choice bits from Jack Smith’s filing

I find some of the details of Mike Pence’s efforts to persuade Donald Trump to accept an election loss bizarre and illuminating. These moments make me think of a parent trying to soothe an angry, tantrum-prone toddler:

A call between the defendant and Pence on November 7, the day that media organizations began to project Biden as the winner of the election. Pence “tried to encourage” the defendant “as a friend,” reminding him, “you took a dying political party and gave it a new lease on life.”

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A private lunch on November 12 in which Pence reiterated a face-saving option for the defendant: “don’t concede but recognize process is over.”

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A private lunch on November 16 in which Pence tried to encourage the defendant to accept the results of the election and run again in 2024, to which the defendant responded, “I don’t know, 2024 is so far off.”

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A December 21 private lunch in which Pence “encouraged” the defendant “not to look at the election ‘as a loss — just an intermission.’” This was followed later in the day by a private discussion in the Oval Office in which the defendant asked Pence, “what do you think we should do?” Pence said, “after we have exhausted every legal process in the courts and Congress, if we still came up short, [the defendant] should ‘take a bow.’”

And on January 6, when Mike Pence’s life was endangered:

Upon receiving a phone call alerting him that Pence had been taken to a secure location, [Person 15] rushed to the dining room to inform the defendant in hopes that the defendant would take action to ensure Pence’s safety. Instead, after [Person 15] delivered the news, the defendant looked at him and said only, “So what?”

You can read and search the document via The Washington Post.