Patriots Walk in Faith During the January 6th Capitol Attack
As the January 6th Committee hears more witnesses testify, one thing is clear: faith played an important role in guiding patriotic Americans.
Vice President's Team Turns to Bible
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, testified that he started January 6th in prayer with the Vice President. Their shared faith guided them throughout the day.
“My faith really sustained me through [the attack],” says Greg Jacob, Chief Counsel for VP Pence.
When Jacob and Pence escaped from the mob in the Capitol and were evacuated to an undisclosed location beneath the Capitol building, Jacob testified that he read from the Bible while they waited.
“Daniel 6 was where I went, and in Daniel 6, Daniel has become the second in command of Babylon, a pagan nation that he completely faithfully serves. He refuses an order from the king that he cannot follow and he does his duty in — consistent with his oath to God. And I felt that that's what had played out that day,” said Jacob.
Though it would have been safer for Mike Pence to evacuate the premises entirely, he said he would not let the American people see their Vice President fleeing from the attack, even as rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”
In the wee hours of the morning on January 7th, after the Vice President had carried out his duty to oversee the certification of the election results, the Vice President’s Chief of Staff, Marc Short, texted Pence a passage from Second Timothy 4:7, “I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I have kept the faith.”
Former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig, who served as an advisor to the Vice President, testified that he too prayed on January 6th.
“I prayed that day just like the Vice President prayed that day,” Judge Luttig said. “I believe we may have prayed the — the same prayer to the same God.”
State Elected Official Guided by Faith
Republican Speaker of the Arizona House, Rusty Bowers, said his faith led him to uphold his Constitutional oath even as then-President Donald Trump, whom he had voted for, pressured him to overturn the election results in Arizona.
“It is a tenet of my faith that the Constitution is divinely inspired, of my most basic foundational beliefs,” Speaker Bowers said. He refused to turn his back on his faith and overturn the election results.
“I do not want to be a winner by cheating,” said Speaker Bowers. “I will not play with laws I swore allegiance to. With any contrived desire towards deflection of my deep foundational desire to follow God's will as I believe He led my conscience to embrace. How else will I ever approach Him in the wilderness of life?”
Election Worker Mentions Faith in God
Ms. Ruby Freeman, an election worker in Georgia, mentioned her faith in God when called on to testify.
“I've always believed it when God says that he'll make your name great,” Ms. Freeman said, “but this is not the way it was supposed to be.”
In the weeks after the 2020 election, former President Trump and his lawyer Rudy
Giuliani spread the lie that Ms. Freeman and her daughter were counting fraudulent ballots. As violent threats came in, the FBI warned Ms. Freeman to leave her home to protect herself.