How Trump told Pence to overturn election: ‘You can go down in history as a patriot or a p***y’

In his bid to halt the joint congressional session during which lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s victory, Donald Trump allegedly told vice president Mike Pence that “you can either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a p***y."

According to a New York Times report, Mr Trump was enraged by Mr Pence’s refusal to help him overturn the election results, and made a last ditch attempt to push the vice president into intervening on 6 January, shortly before he was to head to the Capitol.

It was during this joint session when supporters of the president breached the security of the Capitol Hill, some of them chanting that Mr Pence be hanged, forcing the secret service to evacuate Mr Pence to the basement.

In a dramatic blow-up between the two highest elected offices of the country, the president did not call to check up on his deputy but launched an incendiary attack on him on Twitter, saying that he lacked “the courage” to take action.