Trump told Mike Pence that people are 'gonna hate your guts' and 'think you're stupid' if he opposed plans to reject the 2020 vote

• Mike Pence published a column for WSJ about his final days with Donald Trump.
• He wrote he would hear objections to the 2020 vote but knew he couldn't outright reject the results.

Donald Trump attempted to pressure Mike Pence into unilaterally rejecting the 2020 vote by telling his Vice President that the American people would belittle and hate him, according to a personal account from Pence himself.

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday published an adapted excerpt of Pence's upcoming memoir, "So Help Me God," in which he writes about his final dealings with the former president leading up to the January 6, 2021, riot.

According to his account, Pence emphasized that he was open to hearing legal challenges to the 2020 election results, but he also made it clear that he did not believe he had the sole authority to reject the vote as one federal lawsuit filed by Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas claimed.

"I told him, as I had many times that I didn't believe I possessed that power under the Consitution," Pence wrote, referring to a private phone call he had with Trump on January 1, 2021.

In response, Trump criticized Pence for being "too honest" and said, "Hundreds of thousands are gonna hate your guts ... People are gonna think you're stupid."

Trump would press Pence again the following day about rejecting electoral votes, this time attempting to goad the Vice President by claiming he would make history.

"You can be a historic figure," Trump said, according to Pence, "but if you wimp out, you're just another somebody."

Trump reiterated his sentiment to Pence on the day of the Capitol riot, during which protestors called to "hang Mike Pence."

"You'll go down as a wimp," Trump said. "If you do that, I made a big mistake five years ago!"

The day of the riot was one of the clearest markers of a growing schism between Trump and Pence.

When Pence spoke at the conservative Heritage Foundation on October 19, he warned of "the siren song of unprincipled populism" that threatens the "traditional values" of the GOP, making an apparent reference to a movement that has in part been stoked by Trump.

That same day, during a Q&A at Georgetown University, an audience member asked the former Vice President if he would vote for Trump in 2024.

"Well, there might be somebody else I'd prefer more," he said.