I can honestly say that I have never once, in my entire life, found myself even remotely impressed by former Vice President Mike Pence. However, in the midst of last year’s election mess, spearheaded by former President Donald Trump himself, and the subsequent, violent January 6th Capitol riot, I can say that I was somewhat surprised by him.
I wouldn’t have found it any more shocking than your average Tuesday afternoon if Pence had gone right along with Trump’s baseless, downright dangerous lies about fraud and cheating in the 2020 presidential election and proceeded to try to help Donald overthrow this nation’s election on that fateful January day, as Congress convened to officially certify the Electoral College votes in now President Joe Biden’s favor.
But, astonishingly enough, Pence never did go along with Trump and his desperate lies. In fact, according to new reporting, not only did the now-former Vice President refuse to go along with Trump’s plot to overthrow a literal election, he was absolutely infuriated to find that Trump had published a statement claiming that Pence was in agreeance with his conspiracy theories, claims, and plans when he, in fact, absolutely was not.
Taking to his Twitter, the co-author of the new book Peril, Robert Costa, shined the spotlight on a January 5th statement from then-outgoing President Trump, in which he claimed that he and VP Pence were in “total agreement that the [VP] has the power to act” on January 6th, to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College votes.
According to reporting, Pence and his team were so furious over this public statement that Pence’s then Chief of Staff Marc Short actually called Trump’s adviser Jason Miller and flat out demanded that the president retract the false statement.
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Of course, this tense January 5th meeting was far from the end of the pressure campaign Trump and his people laid on Pence and his people. It’s been reported that far-right Trump ally Boris Epshteyn revealed Rudy Giuliani wanted to pay a visit to the then-Vice President at the Naval Observatory, in an effort to further explain the Big Lie conspiracy theory to Pence.
Of course, Pence wasn’t ultimately noble for long at all. Just recently, the former VP made an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News segment, during which he claimed that the January 6th Capitol riot wasn’t all bad and that Capitol police took care of things pretty swiftly.
Later, Fox host Howard Kurtz would go on to say that “Saying ‘one day in January’ is kind of like calling 9/11 one day in September. It was a pretty tragic day!”
You can read the full Twitter thread from Costa right here:
“This breaks protocol,” Pence chief Marc Short said tersely in phone call with Trump adviser Jason Miller, who was at the Willard with Giuliani and Bannon, among others. Miller refused to retract a word.
From pgs. 233-234 of PERIL
— Robert Costa (@costareports) October 11, 2021
Three main plays at Pence on night Jan. 5:
1-Trump pushes him in Oval, but fails
2-Statement then stuns him, his aides by declaring Pence *in agreement* with Trump
3-Giuliani pushes for one last 1-on-1 push at VP residence, but Pence’s advisers stop it from happening
— Robert Costa (@costareports) October 11, 2021
Pg. 233 of PERIL
Boris “Epshteyn told [Pence adviser Marty] Obst Giuliani would be happy to come over to Pence’s residence and have a discussion. For Obst, the suggestion felt straight out of a bad mafia movie.”
— Robert Costa (@costareports) October 11, 2021
Featured image via screen capture
