Former Pence chief of staff calls Democrats’ discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment in the wake of the Capitol riots a “publicity stunt”, #Pences #chief #staff #calls #Democrats #discussions #invoking #25th #Amendment # wake #Capitol #riot #publicity #stunt Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
Marc Short, who served as former Vice President Pence’s chief of staff on January 6, 2021, accompanied Pence to the Capitol — then to a safe location as hordes of Trump supporters flooded the building.
During the 187-minute riot, Short said he spoke to only one person in the White House.
“The only conversation I had was with Mark Meadows during the hours we were — had been evacuated and were in the loading dock under the Capitol,” Short told CBS News’ Catherine Herridge in an interview on Friday.
Short said he and Pence had a conversation in which they agreed that “it would probably be a good idea to contact the White House and tell them our plans,” which is to continue counting the electoral votes.
Short said that when he shared that information with Meadows, “Mark recognized that was probably the best thing to do.”
When asked if Meadows had given Pence any assurances that President Trump had attempted to mobilize aid, Short merely said it was “not part of our conversation.”
Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, listens during a coronavirus briefing with health insurers in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., on Tuesday, March 10, 2020.
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
One of the storylines that has emerged from that day is the possible discussions of invoking the 25th Amendment — declaring that Trump, who did nothing to stop his supporters from overrunning the Capitol for three hours — was unfit to perform the duties of the office, removing him from the presidency. It is a decision that should have been taken by a majority of the cabinet and the vice president.
Short said congressional leaders did indeed call out in the days following Jan to encourage Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, but he did not take the call.
The vice president sent a letter to Congress on January 12, saying, ‘You know, I was encouraged on January 6 to go beyond my constitutional authority and try to undo the election, and I didn’t bow. I’m not going to bow to pressure from members of Congress irresponsibly trying to invoke a 25th Amendment,” Short recalled.
“The reality of the 25th Amendment invocation was actually more of a publicity stunt, I think, by Democratic leaders than it was taken seriously by our agency,” Short said.
Short said he was not aware of any cabinet support for the idea.
A recent documentary produced by filmmaker Alex Holder portrays Pence appearing to endorse the amendment’s invocation. Handing over a phone, he appears to be checking an email and says, “Yeah, excellent. Print me off a hard copy” – a copy, it is insinuated, of a letter to summon. Short called this “an incredibly unfair rendering.”
Instead, he said, the email in question was an acknowledgment of the letter he sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stating that he rejected the use of the 25th Amendment.
Grace Kazarian contributed to the report.
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