Pence was on FOX last night trying to launch his campaign for 2024. What a ball less creature.
Pence got 10 minutes to talk about 'how hard he was working' during weekly lunches before Trump turned on the TV
Nicole Gaudiano
Mon, July 5, 2021, 4:09 PM
Then-Vice President Mike Pence and then-President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden on March 29, 2020. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence met weekly for lunch.
The lunches were a chance for Pence to tell Trump "how hard he was working for him," a new book
Pence typically got 10 minutes to do this before Trump turned on the TV and described his latest grievances, according to Michael Wolff.
See more stories on Insider's business page.
Former President Donald Trump's weekly lunches with his vice president Mike Pence at the White House followed a familiar routine, according to a forthcoming book by journalist Michael Wolff.
"The lunches were specifically meant to be an opportunity for Pence to tell the president exactly how hard he was working for him," Wolff writes in excerpt of the book "Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency" published by The Times of London."He usually got ten minutes to do this before Trump snapped on the television and launched into his current list of grievances."
Video: Highlights from Harris-Pence 2020 VP debate
Scroll back up to restore default view.
Trump wondered how Pence "could be such a 'stiff' and a 'square,'' the book says, "and likewise, as though a corollary, he regarded Pence as someone not tough, as someone who, he increasingly pointed out, could be 'rolled'."
But after the 2020 election, Pence dismissed the argument that he, as the vice president, could reject what Trump considered to be "fraudulently chosen electors" and prevent Congress from certifying the election results. The book notes that Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani's first hope was that Pence would immediately upset the election by certifying Trump as president.
The excerpt describes their discussion on January 5, the day before the insurrection by Trump supporters at the US Capitol, when Pence refused Trump's demands to block the election of President Joe Biden.
The two were alone together in the Oval Office after their lunch had been rescheduled to a meeting, Wolff reports, and Pence listened to Trump describe the "stolen election," but didn't disagree with him. The former president talked of Pence's "heroic place in history" if he did what Trump considered was right, Wolff wrote.
"Trump pressed further, in a line he would leak straight away and that he would be repeating for months to come: 'Do you want to be a patriot or pussy?'" Wolff wrote. "Pence, not rising to the bait, repeated that, in the overwhelming opinion of those constitutional experts he had consulted, the Constitution did not give him the authority to do what the president thought he could do."
Last month, Pence reiterated his view that the vice president has "no such authority" to reject or return electoral votes certified by the states and hit back at Trump's continued attacks on him without mentioning the former president by name, Insider's Tom LoBianco reported.
"The truth is there is almost no idea more un-American than the idea that one person could choose the president," Pence told a crowd assembled at the Reagan Library in California. "The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone."
In the end, all Pence wanted was to be liked by the Democrats. And now they do.
In any game, there are rules. And politics/government has its rules, its checks and balances. You just can’t do whatever the hell you want. President Bad Combover just never could understand that. His ignorance and laziness in the political system is his own fault. Compounded with the “yes man” idiots like Giuliani giving him the wrong info and advice. Pence is a stiff. But he did his job. Commendable.
ReplyDeleteYou are wrong Pence had the same power as Thomas Jefferson when as Senate President overlooked irregular Georgia ballot and counted himself as winner of the Presidency. Something was funny about the Georgia ballot during the 1800 election. Did Thomas Jefferson act properly in making himself President in 1801? Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution!
DeleteThe Constitution isn't clear on the vote-counting process. Here's all it says: "The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, open all the Certificates and the Votes shall then be Counted." But what happens if the Senate president discovers a legal difficulty in a ballot submitted by a state? Although he is assigned to "open" the ballots, he is not expressly authorized to make a final judgment on the validity of the votes; and although vote-counting occurs in the "presence" of the two houses, they are not expressly granted any sort of decision-making authority in the event of a dispute. The Founders failed to provide clear rules for how to proceed in this situation—a high-stakes moment when passions might flare. The vote-counting ritual could easily end with a disputed ruling from the chair, bitter protest from Congress, and no clear decision on who had won election as the next President of the United States.
You make me laugh, checks and balances does that mean spying on president Trump and his associates prior to his election or creating a witch hunt for Russian collusion or allowing election rules to be changed contrary to the constitution.
DeleteJUDAS Pence a worse traitor than Benedict Arnold!
ReplyDeletePence = Traitor
ReplyDeleteChecks and balances, FISA warrants based on published information written by agents of the same people seeking the warrant. Is it tough combing your hair with your head stuck up your ass?
ReplyDeleteDonald J Trump is rightfully and respectfully the President of the United States!
ReplyDeleteFederal elections end on election day. Not counting votes at 5:00 am or 3 days later. The elections in the six contested states are VOID.
Elections Undecided by Midnight are Void & Preempted by Federal Law – Foster v Love (1997; 9-0 Decision)
All he had to do was refuse votes from disputed States and let the Supreme Court sort it out.
ReplyDeleteSHITBAG!!!
ReplyDelete