Karen Pence believed rioters might ‘shoot through the window’ during Jan. 6 riot

Former second woman Karen Pence revealed on Monday that though she “by no means” feared for her life on Jan. 6, 2021, she did shut the drapes in then Vice President Mike Pence’s Senate workplace out of concern that somebody may spot them inside and begin taking pictures. 

In an interview with ABC News’ Linsey Davis on “Good Morning America”, Karen Pence, 66, recalled the harrowing moments when she and her husband have been hunkered down inside the previous vp’s Senate workplace as rioters stormed the Capitol Constructing. 

Additionally with Karen was her daughter and her brother-in-law Rep. Greg Pence (R-Ind.)

The previous second woman stated “conditioning” by the Secret Service led her to close the drapes in Mike Pence’s workplace minutes after being evacuated from the Senate ground. 

“Each time we traveled, they might have touring bulletproof glass in each lodge room. So it’s a conditioning factor that I simply knew. Everytime you’re in a state of affairs the place somebody may have the ability to shoot via the window, simply shut the drapes,” Karen Pence stated. “That was my considering on the time was like, ‘Wait a minute. Issues are beginning to occur on the market. Let’s shut the drapes.’”

She additionally recalled that through the presidential transition interval, after the 2016 election, she and her husband rented a house within the DC space and obtained their first style of that form of Secret Service “conditioning.” 

“Secret Service had put butcher block paper, you understand, all around the home windows and also you couldn’t even see outdoors,” Karen Pence remembered. 

Mike Pence, a Republican presidential main candidate, has criticized former President Donald Trump over his actions main as much as the riot, accusing his 2024 rival of being “reckless” and endangering his household.  

“The president’s phrases have been reckless and his actions have been reckless,” the 64-year-old former vp instructed ABC’s David Muir in November. 

“The president’s phrases that day on the rally endangered me and my household and everybody on the Capitol constructing,” he added. 

Regardless of shutting the curtains, Karen Pence stated she by no means felt afraid through the riot. 

“I simply was discussing this with somebody right here in Iowa a couple of minutes in the past, I by no means felt afraid,” the previous second woman stated. 

“I actually felt like we simply had such a peace and God’s presence,” she stated. “And only a sense of function and willpower that I don’t assume any of us in the entire group – all of the employees and everybody with us – I don’t assume any of us felt worry. I believe we felt like a way of resolve.”

Earlier this month, Trump, 77, surrendered to regulation enforcement and pleaded not responsible to a four-count indictment from the Justice Division that accused him of disrupting the peaceable switch of energy by making “knowingly false” voter fraud claims that culminated within the storming of the US Capitol constructing by lots of of his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.