- New documentary footage shows Mike Pence reacting to conversations about the 25th amendment.
- Invoking the 25th amendment could have enabled Pence to replace Trump after January 6.
- The footage was released as an excerpt from an upcoming documentary by filmmaker Alex Holder.
A documentary filmmaker claimed that Vice President Mike Pence appeared to react enthusiastically to an email calling on him to remove president Donald Trump from office after the January 6 attacks on the Capitol, according to CNN.
In the footage filmed on January 12, an aide hands Pence his phone and Pence reads an email containing a draft House resolution that would have him invoking the 25th amendment, according to filmmaker Alex Holder. The three-part series, titled "Unprecedented," will be released later this summer.
Upon reading the email calling for Pence to remove Trump by invoking the 25th amendment, the vice president smirks and responds, "yeah, excellent," Holder told CNN.
Pence's team denied to CNN that he was reacting affirmatively to invoking the 25th amendment. His team told the network that he instead was reacting to an email of his letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying that he would not invoke the 25th amendment. Pence's representatives did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Ultimately, Pence rejected the idea after House democrats called on him to replace Trump days after the insurrection.
The 25th Amendment in the US Constitution allows a president to be withdrawn if a majority of Congress along with the Vice President decide that the president is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."
"The world watched aghast as insurrectionists, who had been egged on by the president, threatened the safety of elected officials... bringing our democracy to a halt," House democrats said the the letter sent to Pence on January 6, 2021.
Holder testified to the January 6 committee behind closed doors on Thursday morning and has maintained that Pence was reviewing the actual draft resolution to invoke the 25th amendment when he said "yeah, excellent," and smiled.
Holder is set to release a scathing documentary on the inner workings of the Trump administration around the January 6 insurrection, and has been subpoenaed by the committee.
The January 6 committee held their fifth hearing on Thursday.