Page:Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.pdf/608



refer the illegally-submitted electoral votes back to the states that were given false and fraudulent information where they want to recertify. With only 3 of the 7 states in question we win and become President and have the power of the veto.

No one on the speechwriting team could explain why President Trump added these lines just 30 minutes before he was originally scheduled to speak at 11:00 a.m. But by 10:49 a.m., Vincent Haley, a speechwriter who was helping load the teleprompter at the Ellipse, was told to hold off and delete the mention of the Vice President—for now. Miller said that Eric Herschmann, a lawyer who was one of the President's senior advisors, asked him in a "brief sidebar" that morning to omit reference to the Vice President and his role in the certification process because he "didn't concur with the legal analysis" and that it "wouldn't advance the ball" but would be "counterproductive" instead. As detailed in Chapter 5, Herschmann and others in the White House were vocal critics of Dr. John Eastman's theory, which claimed that the Vice President had the unilateral power to reject electors during the joint session of Congress. President Trump repeatedly pressured Pence to either reject certified electors, or delay the