Marc Short: 'Snake Oil Salesmen' Were Advising Trump on Election - Rolling Stone

Days after he testified to the Jan. 6 committee, the former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence said that “snake oil salesmen” fueled President Trump’s belief that Pence could reject certain states’ electors to overturn the 2020 election. His comments further emphasized a growing rift between Penceworld and Trumpworld.

“Unfortunately, the president had many bad advisers who were basically snake oil salesmen giving him giving him really random and novel ideas as to what the vice president could do,” Marc Short said Sunday on Meet the Press. Short’s comments came shortly after Pence himself pushed back against Trump’s recent attempts to blame the former vice president for refusing to subvert democracy and allowing the peaceful transfer of power to President Biden.

WATCH: Former President Trump "got a lot of bad advice," former Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence @marctshort says.

"Unfortunately the president had many bad advisers who were basically snake-oil salesmen." pic.twitter.com/9zpenebQT6

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) February 6, 2022

“There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress that I possess unilateral authority to reject electoral college votes,” Pence said Friday during an address to the Federalist Society. “And I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election, but President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.”

Short told host Chuck Todd on Sunday that “there’s nothing in the 12th Amendment or the Electoral Count Act that would afford a vice president that authority” to reject electors. “It’s why no vice president in 200 years has ever used that authority, and it’s certainly not one that I think conservatives or Republicans would want Kamala Harris the ability to say she’s going to reject votes from Texas or Wyoming or any other state heading into 2024,” he said.

Short added that he believes there was not sufficient evidence of voter fraud that would have changed the results of the presidential election, but he also pushed the Republican line that there were “significant concerns about what transpired in Pennsylvania, what transpired in Wisconsin, what transpired in Georgia.”

“But,” he added, “the campaign had opportunities to bring that evidence up until Dec. 14 and didn’t. And so I think 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 have overturned any of those states’ elections.”

On Jan. 6, Short was with Pence in the Capitol and said he had a “front row seat” when a mob of Trump supporters attacked the building. “From my front-row seat I did not see a lot of legitimate political discourse,” Short said, contradicting a recent Republican National Committee resolution claiming that “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse” on Jan. 6. But, Short defended some Trump supporters who were present that day who he said were “peacefully protesting.”

According to Short, Trump and Pence “did not have conversations” on the day of the insurrection. Although he declined to answer when Todd asked whether Pence tried to speak with Trump, Short recalled speaking with Mark Meadows, Trump’s then-chief of staff. During the attack, Short said Pence refused to leave the Capitol, despite attempts by the Secret Service to evacuate him from the building. “I’m not going to let the free world see us fleeing the Capitol, and I’m staying,” Pence said, according to Short.

WATCH: Former Vice President Pence's Chief of Staff @marctshort
describes the timeline of Jan. 6, as Secret Service asked them to leave the Capitol multiple times.

"[Pence] was clear to say, 'That's not a visual I want of the world to see of us, of us fleeing the Capitol.'" pic.twitter.com/nT0yeNl8VF

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) February 6, 2022

Short said he doesn’t believe that Pence will be called to testify before the Jan. 6 committee. “I think that would be a pretty unprecedented step for the committee to take,” he said. “It would be I think very difficult for me to see that scenario unfolding.” Last week, the National Archives said it will be releasing certain Pence records to the Jan. 6 panel by March 3 at the White House’s request.

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