Pence's Former Chief of Staff Makes Major Admission About 2020 Election
The chief of staff for former Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday there are “significant concerns” about the 2020 elections.
During an appearance Sunday on the NBC show “Meet the Press,” Marc Short did not go into depth on those concerns.
“I think like a lot of people, the vice president has significant concerns about the election,” Short said.
“Still?” replied host Chuck Todd.
Short, who served as the White House director for legislative affairs before joining Pence’s staff, did not change his tune.
“So, I think there are significant concerns about what transpired in Pennsylvania, what transpired in Wisconsin, what transpired in Georgia when you said you had matching signatures, you didn’t. You had election officials overruling state officials and saying, ‘We’ll keep the balloting open,’ allowed universal access and mail-in balloting,” Short said.
However, he said those concerns did not allow Pence to have acted differently from the way he did when the time came to certify the results on Jan. 6, 2021.
“But at the same time, the Constitution is clear what that process is. You’re afforded a chance to challenge. You’re afforded a chance to bring legal challenges. But at the point of the Electoral College meeting on December 14th, at that point, the process is concluded. And that’s why the Constitution wanted the states the ability to certify elections and not for the federal government. It’s very clear in fact, in the Federalist Papers. They warned about the threat of a federal government having that sort of authority,” he said.
Todd then asked if Short believed the election was legitimate, and if President Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States, allowing for the fact that there could be concerns about voting procedures.
“I mean, I think that’s the same, it’s the same question. I think that there were significant concerns about the process of that election that’s going to, going to create a cloud,” he said.
“But I think, Chuck, at the same time, to your point, the campaign had opportunities to bring that evidence up till December 14th and didn’t. And so at this point, you have to assume that he was duly elected. And the reality is that there was not enough significant fraud that was presented that would’ve overturned any of those states’ elections,” he said.
After Todd insisted that evidence has shown no fraud, Short replied, “As I said, I think there are significant concerns, and I’m glad many states are looking to rectify, Chuck. But I acknowledge that the president’s duly elected.”
Short contradicted Todd after the host called election fraud allegations “baseless.”
“I’m not sure that all the allegations out there were baseless, Chuck. I’m not confident of that,” he said.
He then noted that concerns for the conduct of the election were different than the constitutional obligations that had to be fulfilled on Jan. 6 as Congress met to certify the results of the Electoral College vote.
“But I think the reality again is, we’re asking, ‘What’s the constitutional role of the vice president of the United States?’ We’re governed by rule of laws, not rule of men. And the reality is that [Pence] was following what the Constitution afforded the vice president under the 12th Amendment and the Electoral Count Act. And he was doing his duty, which was what he was required to, under an oath to the Constitution to defend it,” he said.
Short said that in the days leading up to Jan 6, former President Donald Trump received “a lot of bad advice.”
“I think, unfortunately, the president had many bad advisers, who were basically snake-oil salesmen, giving him really random and novel ideas as to what the vice president could do,” he said.
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