Former VP Pence’s Chief of Staff Reveals New Details About Evacuation, Deployment of Nat’l Guard During Capitol Insurrection

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, revealed new harrowing details about how his boss’s movements and coordination to deploy the National Guard during the Capitol insurrection.

Speaking with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Short publicly spoke out for the first time about the events of January 6th and the tense few hours between the breaching of the Capitol and the resumption of Electoral College certification.

“I’ll fast forward to the moment that we were in the Senate moving from the House over to the Senate chamber to debate Arizona [electors],” Short said. “The Secret Service asked him to leave and recess into his ceremonial office off of the Senate floor. Over the next few minutes, the Secret Service came in multiple times to ask the vice president to evacuate. He was resolute and saying ‘I’m not going to evacuate. We’re not going to allow them to win.'”

Ultimately, the Secret Service overruled Pence as the security situation in the Capitol deteriorated, which harrowing video evidence presented during Donald Trump’s impeachment trial showed came perilously close to reaching the vice president. Agents whisked Pence and his entourage down to his motorcade, but, at that point, the chief of staff said the vice president balked at getting inside the vehicle. His worry, Short explained, that the Secret Service would then insist on leaving the building out of an abundance of caution. “I’m determined to stay here,” Pence reportedly said.

“I saw the vice president exert enormous leadership by calling Senator [Mitch] McConnell and [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer to make sure that they were okay and how we can get back to finish the work of the American people,” Short added. “The frustration that he heard was the sense that the National Guard was a little slower in getting there than leadership wanted. So the vice president offered to call [Army] Secretary [Christopher] Miller and [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark] Milley, which he did. They said we’re moving as quickly as we can. Convey that back to leadership. They had several calls.”

Short then revealed that Pence was warned that the Capitol might have to be vacated for several days — further postponing the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden’s victory — to clear the building.

“There were concerns that there could have been explosive devices,” Short explained. “Secret Service offered to bring k-9 units in and the vice president and leadership were determined to say: ‘We want to make sure that the sort of actions are not rewarded. We want to finish the business tonight.’ They pursued it. And he was in command and worked with leadership to make sure that that was executed that evening.”

Watch the video above, via Fox News.

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