Vice President Mike Pence called Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris to congratulate her on her victory and impending assumption of his office Friday, the Associated Press reported.
Pence reportedly both congratulated Harris and offered his assistance in the transition process, something sitting vice presidents typically do immediately following Election Day. President Donald Trump has still not formally conceded the election to President-Elect Joe Biden, nor has he given Biden a call. Pence has grown increasingly distant from Trump since the president attempted to pressure him into rejecting the Electoral College certification of Biden’s victory, something Pence isn’t capable of doing under the Constitution. (RELATED: REPORT: VP Mike Pence, Not President Trump, Approved Deployment Of National Guard To Stop Mob In DC)
Biden’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the call. Someone familiar with the conversation told the Associated Press that it was a “good call.”
NEW: VP Mike Pence called VP-elect @KamalaHarris to congratulate her on Thursday per a Biden Transition Official. Sources say their staffs had already been in touch. W/ @PaulaReidCBS
— Tim Perry (@tperry518) January 15, 2021
Pence made the call just over a week after pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol. The Department of Justice announced Friday that some of the rioters intended to capture and assassinate Pence and other elected officials for refusing to name Trump the victor.
“Every American needs to understand what the Department of Justice has just made public: Investigators have strong evidence to suggest that some of the rioters who stormed the United States Capitol planned to kidnap and possibly assassinate the Vice President,” Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said in a Friday statement. “These men weren’t drunks who got rowdy — they were terrorists attacking this country’s constitutionally-mandated transfer of power.”
Washington is bracing for planned protests ahead of Biden’s inauguration as well, deploying 10,000 National Guard troops to the city. Protests have also reportedly been planned at the Capitols of all 50 states, according to the FBI.