Former Vice President Mike Pence was terrorized by Donald Trump's supporters on Jan. 6 but, until recently, he's avoided blaming his former boss. Now, it appears he plans to point to former chief of staff Mark Meadows as being the architect of the strategy to overthrow the 2020 election.
Speaking to CNN's Abby Phillip on Tuesday evening, former Pence chief of staff Marc Short tested out the messaging.
"I think it's fair to say that Mark was a ringleader in much of the events that happened around Jan. 6," said Short, noting that it was Trump who asked Meadows to "find additional attorneys that gave advice different from White House counsel. That it was very central to the events that happened that day. And I think what is often missed in the coverage in the weeks leading up to that, in which the vice president made it clear he did not think that there was some magic authority vested upon a vice president of the United States that's never been used in 250 years of our republic that allowed the overturning of the election results."
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It was Meadows, he continued, who gathered the lawyers who were whispering in Trump's ear.
Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman noted: "When Pence’s former Chief of Staff says Meadows was the ringleader for much of Jan 6, it’s much more than score-settling. It’s a harbinger of trial testimony that would land Meadows in Fulton County Jail, and no doubt that’s how Meadows takes it."
Meadows is thought to be cooperating with the special counsel in the federal case, but not in the Georgia case. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is refusing to allow Meadows an "out" so he doesn't have to be arrested this week. Meadows is working to get his Georgia case moved to federal court and a hearing on that won't be held until after the deadline to submit for arrest. Legal analysts have said they don't expect the request to be successful.
See the clip of Marc Short in the video below or at the link here.
