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Mike Pence’s Close Shave With Nuclear Football at Capitol Only Realized by Military When They Saw It on TV

Strategic Command learned from TV footage that the Jan. 6 insurrectionists came within yards of Pence and an aide who was carrying his copy of the nation’s nuclear launch system.

The U.S. military’s top command was unaware that Vice President Mike Pence’s “nuclear football” was at risk of being captured by rioters during the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol—until they saw it on TV this week. U.S. Strategic Command only became aware of the close call after seeing a video played at the Senate impeachment trial Wednesday that showed Pence, his Secret Service agents, and a military officer carrying the briefcase with the classified nuclear-launch information running down a flight of stairs inside the Capitol to get to safety, a source told CNN. The vice president always has a backup of the president’s “football” in case the president becomes incapacitated. Kingston Reif, an expert on nuclear-weapons policy at the nonpartisan Arms Control Association, told CNN the incident “ought to raise further questions about the rationale for the anachronism that is the football.”