Pence’s Former Chief of Staff Tears Into Trump’s Inner Circle: His Advisers Were ‘Basically Snake-Oil Salesmen’

NBC’s Chuck Todd grilled Mark Short — the former Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence — on Meet the Press Sunday morning about former President Donald Trump’s suggestion to overturn the 2020 election.

Short begun by reiterating what Pence discussed during his speech at the Federalist Society in Orlando on Friday afternoon, specifically the authority — or in this case lack-thereof — to overturn the electoral college voting process during the presidential election.

“There is nothing in the 12th amendment or the electoral count act that would afford a vice president that authority,” stated Short.

“It’s certainly not one that I think Republicans would want Kamala Harris to be able to say she’s going to reject votes from Texas, or Wyoming, or any other state heading into 2024,” he continued.

Short added that Pence and himself both still have concerns with some of what transpired in the election, referencing hotly contested states like Georgia and Pennsylvania, but continued to note that “The constitution is clear what that process is. You’re afforded to bring legal challenges, but to the point of the electoral college meeting on December 14, at that point the process is concluded.”

The former chief of staff said that he believes President Joe Biden was fairly elected, “and the reality was there was not enough significant fraud that was presented to overturn any of those state elections.”

Todd then shifted the focus to discuss Trump’s legal advice leading up to the January 6th riot asking, “Had he gotten legal advice that said well, you can’t decide which electoral votes are yes and no, but you can mourn this session and delay things? questioned the anchor, “Had he gotten legal advice to do that? Was the Vice President considering it?”

“No, Chuck.” Short said almost rolling his eyes “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.”

“Are you chalking this up to bad advisors, or was the former president seeking the bad advice?” probed Todd.

“I don’t know the answer to that question,” Short stammered. “I think that honestly, he did get a lot of bad advice.”

Watch above, via NBC.

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