Former vice president Mike Pence’s chief of staff warned that the vice president faced a great security risk before the 6 January riot as former president Donald Trump would turn against him, The New York Times reported.
Marc Short, who served as Mr Pence’s chief of staff, reportedly met with the vice president’s lead Secret Service agent Tim Giebels to warn that the president would turn his ire toward the vice president for not overturning the 2020 presidential election results, which could endanger Mr Pence.
The revelation comes as part of New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.
Mr Short reportedly said he did not know what form that security risk would take but was concerned after Mr Trump intensified his pressure campaign to convince Mr Pence to intervene in the certification of the election results despite no evidence that the 2020 contest was stolen.
Mr Trump exhorted Mr Pence to intervene during his speech at the White House Ellpise during the “Stop the Steal” rally ahead of the insurrection.
“All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people,” he said at the time, according to the report.
In response, when rioters breached the Capitol, many of them yelled “Hang Mike Pence” and others created a mock gallows outside the building. Meanwhile, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reportedly said that Mr Trump thought maybe Mr Pence should have been hung, though it’s unclear what tone Mr Trump used in making the remark.
Since then, Mr Pence has said publicly that he had no authority to overturn the election.
“President Trump is wrong,” he said in February.
The Times reported that in the days after the 2020 election, the vice president’s aides learned that Mr Trump’s advisers discussed the possibility of stopping certification on 6 January. In response, Mr Pence consulted with his general counsel Greg Jacob and the vice president’s team concluded he had no authority to stop certifying election results.
