Marc Short, former chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that at the end of his presidency, the advisers to Donald Trump were “basically snake-oil salesmen.”
Anchor Chuck Todd said, “I want to go back to the time of January 6. You guys were under a lot of pressure. When did you conclude that all of the potential allegations that were out there that they were baseless?”
Short said, “I’m not sure that all the allegations out there were baseless, Chuck. I’m not confident of that. But I think the reality, again, we’re asking what is the constitutional role of the Vice President of the United States? We’re governed by rule of laws, not rule of men. The reality is he was following what the Constitution afforded the vice president in the Electoral Count Act. He was doing his duty under the oath to the Constitution to defend it.”
Todd said, “Had he gotten legal advice that said, well, you can’t decide which electoral votes are yes and no, but you can adjourn this session and delay things? Had he gotten legal advice to do that? Was the Vice President considering it?”
Short said, “No, Chuck. I think, unfortunately, the President had many bad advisors who were basically snake-oil salesmen, giving him really random and novel ideas as to what the Vice President could do.”
Todd said, “Are you chalking this up to bad advisors, or was the former president seeking the bad advice?”
Short said, “I don’t know the answer to that question. I think that honestly, he did get a lot of bad advice.”
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