“I think, as you mentioned, the vice president commented on January 6th several times, including last summer at the Ronald Reagan Library,” Short said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “” And he extended those remarks a little bit like this this week at the Federation of Federations mainly because of the President’s remarks about the vice president having the potential to overturn the election, I think the response deserved. “
Short also said he doesn’t believe the January 6 riots at the US Capitol can be described as “legitimate political discourse”, rejecting how the Republican National Committee recently defined frame that day in a statement.
“From my front row, I don’t see a lot of legitimate political discourse,” Short said Sunday.
“In speaking with some members of the RNC, I think there is concern that there are people who have been there peacefully protesting, who have been dragged into this, which I think is becoming a prosecution by the committee on January 6 and feel how they are being treated unfairly.”
The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attacks is unlikely to prosecute anyone; the maximum it can give a criminal referral to the Department of Justice.
Attempts to pressure Pence lead to January 6
Although Short said that Pence had concerns about the election, he said that Pence never wavered because his role on January 6 was only to confirm the election.
“Nothing in the 12th Amendment or the Voter Count Act could give a vice president that authority,” Short said, outlining how Pence views his role in the process. .
However, Mr. Pence said succinctly ‘there are significant concerns about the election,’ but insisted that the process of introducing challenges or changes to the outcome of the election ended with a meeting of the Voters. group on December 14.
Particularly succinctly highlighted issues with the legitimacy of voting by mail, although there was no evidence of fraud. “The fact that not enough substantial fraud has been introduced could upset any of those states’ elections,” he said.
Regarding the results, Short stated, “I believe Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States, yes.”
In the lead up to January 6, Short said that Pence had never considered delaying the certification, despite the massive pressure campaign from Trump and his allies. Short relayed that initially the strategy from Trump and his advisers was to reject the ballots, when Pence made clear that was not what he was going to do, the strategy shifted to asking if Pence would send votes back to the candidates. state or not.
Short also acknowledged that there have been conversations about alternative groups of electors, which is a scheme to illegally bring in electors from some of the states Trump lost to topple the Electoral College, but that plan doesn’t carry much weight.
“There have been discussions about alternative means,” said Short. “Unless they’re state certified, they’re really meaningless and so don’t take that seriously.”
Short made it difficult for Trump advisers, not the former President directly, to these plans by saying, “I think unfortunately, the President has a lot of bad advisers who are basically people was the snake oil salesman giving him really random and novel ideas of how the president might do.”
As the violence unfolded, Short said it took the Secret Service three attempts before they were able to convince Pence to move to a safe location and even made an attempt to get Pence into a convoy, but he we want to stay. and end the certification process. Short said that Trump and Pence did not speak on January 6, but Short spoke with then-Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.
“There’s a sense of a tragic day, a sense of loss, but there’s also a sense of that pride and what we’ve achieved in four years and a feeling that this is going to be an unfortunate stain on us. that record,” Short said of what he witnessed on January 6.
January 6 committee
Although Short has testified before the House select committee, he said he believes it will be an unprecedented step for the panel in subpoenaing Pence.
“I think it’s going to be an unprecedented step for the committee. I think it’s going to be very difficult for me to see that scenario playing out,” Short said. “I think it’s very different to subpoena a former vice president to talk about private conversations with the President of the United States. It’s never happened before.”
Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, a member of the committee, told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Sunday, “We can find everything we need to know from other sources,” but left the possibility open. possible subpoena against Pence.
“The issue for the committee is to gather all the facts and we’ve said from the very beginning that we will seek testimony from anyone if we need to. The question is: Do we need it? We’ve received substantial testimony that could have done it unnecessarily, but we’re sorting it out,” Lofgren said.
Short said he was forced to cooperate with the panel because of his subpoena and he did so because he wanted to obey the law. CNN previously reported that Short and another top aide to Pence, Greg Jacob, declined to talk about their face-to-face conversations with Trump during recent respective interviews with the committee, but They answered other questions.
Short said he was concerned that the board was too partisan but hoped that it could produce a legitimate product.
“I hope that the committee will come up with a fair review. But I think there’s good reason to be skeptical that they will, because actually the committee has come up with a more partisan committee.” Short said.
This story has been updated to include comments from Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren.
CNN’s Sarah Fortinsky contributed to this report.
